“One year has passed since we built a museum in our mold factory” Takako Kajikawa, Part1
Table of Contents
Part1
●Greetings and introduction of performers
●Factory Art Museum Toyama’s first anniversary event
●How did you start attending zenschool and how did you meet enmono?
●About zenschool Toyama and zenschool masters
Part2
●The future of Factory Art Museum Toyama
●Cooperation with Toyama’s manufacturing industry and lectures
●The future of manufacturing and the role of zenschool masters
●Mrs. Kajikawa’s thoughts on “the future of XX in Japan
●Video of the dialogue
This article was published in 2018 This is a conversation that took place in 2006. Please note that the information is current at the time.
●Greetings and introduction of performers
Miki: Micro manufacturing streaming has begun again today. Today, I would like to visit Fujita Corporation’s wonderful Factory Art Museum Toyama, and ask President Kajikawa about how she came up with this idea. Thank you very much for your time.
Kajikawa: Thank you very much.
●Factory Art Museum Toyama’s first anniversary event
Miki: It’s already been a year since the completion of this wonderful museum…
Kajikawa: It was exactly one year yesterday (April 8, 2018).
Miki: How has the past year been for you? Since the museum opened.
Kajikawa: Even though the museum is open, it doesn’t mean that people come every day, and there are still many days when no one comes. When we hold events, the number of people who say, “I don’t know what’s going on, but I came here because this is the place,” is actually increasing.
Miki: What kind of new encounters have you had in particular?
Kajikawa: We hold seminars and events, and people come to us because they saw our Facebook page and said, “This looks interesting,” and only after they arrive do they ask, “What is this place? And since we are in the manufacturing industry, there are many people from the manufacturing industry, so even if it’s not actual work, it’s a good opportunity to exchange technical information.
Miki: What kind of business do you mean by that?
Kajikawa: There are salarymen, designers who work alone, modelers, and webmasters, so there are a lot of people…
Miki: There are a lot of people outside of the manufacturing industry. The statue of Asura in the background is also a graduate of the zenschool in Toyota City (Mr. Imai), how did you decide to display it here for the first anniversary celebration?
Utsunomiya: You displayed the prototype at the opening, didn’t you? It was shown on TV, even though it was still hidden from the public…
Kajikawa: That’s right. On the day of the opening last year, people brought in the previous prototype, and it was shown in the newspapers and on the news, and people who saw it often asked me, “Don’t you have an Asura statue? I knew it was popular, so I told Mr. Imai, “I’d like to make it permanent.
Miki: What is this cave?
Kajikawa: This cave is the work of Hiramiya from Kawasaki City.
Utsunomiya: The polygon connection?
Kajikawa: Yes, that’s right. “The first anniversary is in April, so I thought it would be fun to decorate something like this,” I think I said in connection with Asura’s polygons.
Miki: Is that how Asura-san introduced you?
Kajikawa: No, I visited Mr. Hiramiya once last year, and at that time, I didn’t have any plans to exhibit, but I had an idea that it would be nice to display his work and his work.
Miki: I feel like your planning skills are really improving.
Kajikawa: Thank you very much.
Miki: In the past, we would have had to help out and come up with the program, but this time, you did everything yourself…
Kajikawa: It’s like we just came together.
Miki: What kind of menu do you have? There are a lot of events in these two days, right?
Kajikawa: The opening event will be held on April 7th and 8th, and the Philosophy Cafe will be held next week on April 15th.
Miki: Philosophy Cafe. What is that?
Kajikawa: There is a student from the first year of zenschool Toyama (Mr. Nozue) who majored in philosophy and now works in manufacturing. When I asked him about it, he said, “I actually majored in philosophy in college, and I used to hold a philosophy café, but I’m busy now, so I haven’t done it in a while. That’s how we started last year, and this is the third one.
Miki: I heard it’s quite popular. How many people can participate?
Kajikawa: We started out with about 10 people, but now we’ve expanded to 15.
Miki: What is the content?
Kajikawa: The first one was about technology and techne, which is Greek for “making things,” and the second one was about atoms and bits. The next one, on April 15, will be a discussion on artificial intelligence AI and whether human jobs will remain, looking at it from a philosophical perspective, and Mr. Nosue, the lecturer, will be coordinating that one.
Miki: What kind of people are participating in this event?
I don’t know anything about philosophy, so I’ve never met these people before, but as soon as I put up the Philosophy Cafe page, people started joining.
Utsunomiya: So it’s not easy to find people like that? Is there a place where these people can talk to each other?
Kajikawa: They seem to be looking for something. They want a place to talk. If there were such a place, they would travel an hour from far away.
Miki: Will there be anything after the Philosophy Cafe (the first anniversary event)?
Kajikawa: After that, we have a classical music concert for one million people the next week on April 21st.
Miki: Classical live music? That’s amazing.
Kajikawa: There is a foundation that does that kind of work, and they will prepare violin and piano players and do publicity for us, so we will provide the space. We are planning to do that at the site.
Miki: On site? That’s great.
Kajikawa: I’ve heard that the goal is to spread this throughout the country, but this is the first time for Toyama, so we’re going to call it the “One Million People’s Classical Live Concert,” and we’re going to hold charity concerts all over the country to encourage people who are not familiar with classical music to love it. …
Utsunomiya: This could be a good idea, since there is no connection between factories and classical music.
Miki: That sounds great. That’s great. What will you do after that?
Kajikawa: After that, I’m planning to hold a shakuhachi concert during the Golden Week, but I haven’t done any publicity yet.
Miki: It’s a friend of mine, Mr. Renzan Kudo.
Kajikawa: It’s a little bit like mindfulness…
Utsunomiya: Is there one every weekend until May 6?
Kajikawa: Yes, that’s right. I was wondering if we could do something impromptu since it’s lonely every weekend and weekdays. It’s a great spot for photography, so I’m thinking of holding a night-only photo session.
Miki: Like a weeknight-only event with one drink?
Kajikawa: Yes, with a drink.
Miki: Like a toast with non-alcoholic juice that tastes a little like wine.
Kajikawa: Like an all-you-can-shoot kind of thing…
Miki: That sounds great. That’s interesting. Did you have this kind of image in mind when you were working with us at zenschool?
Kajikawa: Not at all.
Miki: But when I looked back at some old photos, I found this one. When Mr. Kajikawa participated in our school in July 2015, I wrote down what he said on the whiteboard, and the first thing I found was that it was completely white.
Kajikawa: It’s completely white. Everything is white.
Utsunomiya: But you didn’t order white, did you?
Kajikawa: I don’t remember saying “I want it white,” but it ended up being white.
Miki: The second one is an empty space. An empty museum. What do you think?
Kajikawa: No one is here every day.
Miki: The third one is an industrial park, but it feels nice. It’s definitely pleasant. There are flowers and Buddhist statues, and it’s really a pleasant space. What do you think? How does this fit in?
Kajikawa: It’s amazing how well it fits. There was nothing there at the time, but now the language has become reality.
Miki: It was called the Toyama Factory Museum (TFM), a museum-like factory that uses cutting technology to create and display artifacts.
Kajikawa: That’s right. At first.
Miki: What do you think? Seeing this reality. Why do you think these things happened?
Kajikawa: I don’t know. I don’t know, but I was running like crazy, and the result was created.
●How did you start attending zenschool and how did you meet enmono?
Miki: What was your reason for coming to zenschool?
Kajikawa: The reason I came to zenschool goes all the way back to the year after the Lehman Shock (2010), when I became the president. Before that, the company was like a zoo with no rules, no organization, and no discipline. I thought that if I did something, I would get results, but when I thought about the next step, I wondered if I could continue my current work for the next 10 years. So I was always looking for a way to change my job or do something different. But I couldn’t find anything.
Miki: How long were you looking for something?
Kajikawa: It’s been five or six years since I became the president.
Utsunomiya: Was it before the earthquake?
Kajikawa: No, it was after the earthquake. To some extent, the earthquake was a trigger. I felt the shock of losing everything I had built up in an instant because of the earthquake, and when a family member who was fine in the morning died in the earthquake, I felt that I had to do what I wanted to do or what I could do. I remember thinking that it was ridiculous for me to be mumbling to myself everyday.
Utsunomiya: It’s not easy to find what you want to do, is it?
Kajikawa: I couldn’t find anything, but I thought it was a waste of time to spend on boring things.
Miki: What do you mean by boring things?
Kajikawa: For example, I was bothered by small things in the company, so I thought, “If I had time to worry about that…
Miki: Like, let’s do what we want to do?
Kajikawa: I thought it would be better to aim for something bigger…
Utsunomiya: Did you do a lot of research? Did you look for new things to do or new knowledge to gain, or did you go out as a movement?
Kajikawa: Yes, I did. At that time, I had been inside the company for a long time and hadn’t gone outside, so going outside the company was quite a hurdle for me.
Miki: When you say hurdles, do you mean hurdles for yourself? Or the company’s?
Kajikawa: Both. I’ve been doing CAD work for a long time, so I had to do that to keep the site flowing, so it seemed like going outside the company was a bad idea or would stop the work.
Utsunomiya: Did you feel stimulated in any way when you started going out?
Kajikawa: I was stimulated in many ways. For better or for worse, there was a lot of stimulation.
Miki: In February 2015, the World KOMA(spinning top) War was held, and you met each other for the first time there.
Kajikawa: That’s right.
Utsunomiya: I was taken by Koyama, an intern, and these two were there and before I knew it, we were shaking hands, taking pictures for the record.
Kajikawa: No, I was aware of enmono, but I didn’t have a chance to meet them until then. At the World War II reception, I didn’t think Mr. Koyama was an intern, and when we were talking, he said, “I’m actually interning at enmono,” so I asked him to introduce me, and he took me there.
Utsunomiya: What did you think of us?
Kajikawa: I didn’t really know, but I thought we were…
Utsunomiya: The iPhone nunchuck type…
Kajikawa: I had seen on the Internet that you and Mr. Fujisawa were holding a workshop in Tokyo for the manufacturing community. But I didn’t know what they were doing, and I didn’t know about zenschool.
Utsunomiya: But you shook hands with him and decided to take the course.
Miki: After that, there were some changes in your mind…
Kajikawa: After we shook hands, I went to see the presentation of the 10th term.
Utsunomiya: At the presentation of the 10th term, there were people in costumes and people with muscles. What did you think of them?
Kajikawa: I was surprised at the first stuffed animal because I wondered what was going to happen. I was like, “What? What? What’s this clown? The muscle guy also said, “I have cancer,” and I thought he had a lot of muscle…
Miki: So you became anxious when you saw that?
Kajikawa: It wasn’t that I was worried, but it was a new world for me. It was like seeing the world for the first time. It was like a bang. “Like, “What is this? It was like, “What is this?
Miki: Did you have it in your mind that you were going to develop your own products, but when you got there, it was like something different?
Kajikawa: It was different in that it wasn’t just about products, and I didn’t see anything too rigid like, “I’m going to develop my own products and use them to make my company better,” so I felt a little relieved that it was okay to make this kind of presentation.
Miki: Did you feel anxious before the course?
Kajikawa: Yes, I did. I wondered if there was something new in me, if it would come out, if I would be able to do it.
Miki: It did come out.
Kajikawa: No, no, I can say that now, but at that time I was thinking what if it didn’t come out?
Miki: It’s dormant in everyone, isn’t it?
●About zenschool Toyama and zenschool masters
Miki: After graduating and taking out the museum, Mr. Kajikawa applied to become a zenschool master in order to master zenschool, and we held the zenschool Toyama on top of the museum.
Utsunomiya: In July last year.
Miki: What were your memories of that time?
Kajikawa: It’s a good memory. It was fun. It was just an idea, wasn’t it? “I just said, “I have a free space, so why don’t we make zenschool Toyama? I suddenly said, “That sounds great. Let’s do it,” and I put out a call for applications.
Utsunomiya: Then Mr. Nosue signed up right away.
Miki: We made a page and released it about three days later, didn’t we?
Kajikawa: Then one person signed up right away.
Miki: Mr. Nozue is now running the Philosophy Cafe upstairs.
Kajikawa: Yes, that’s right. Mr. Nozue is now a lecturer at the Philosophy Café.
Miki: How was the first anniversary of the first term of zenschool Toyama?
Utsunomiya: This time, as a master, I was looking at it from a different perspective than I did when I took the zenschool.
Kajikawa: I realized that the expression of a person changes completely when the switch is turned on. It was like, “Oh, this is the moment…”.
Utsunomiya: Mr. Nozue and Mr. Maeda are easy to understand.
Miki: Do you know that it was happening to you?
Kajikawa: I don’t know.
Utsunomiya: I still have a picture of it, though. I even appeared on a TV program, Gaia no Yoake.
Kajikawa: But I don’t know. I don’t know.
Miki: So it’s really just 0.0 seconds. When the image goes down with a bang, it’s ready to go.
Utsunomiya: You just took time to write down that moment, didn’t you?
Miki: We’re concentrating on that moment so that we don’t miss it. Look at the expression on the person’s face.
Utsunomiya: When Mrs. Kajikawa came to us to make products, we asked him if he really wanted to do that. We asked him if he really wanted to do that, but his expression was not cheerful. “He said he wanted to make beautiful things, but when we asked him if he really wanted to make beautiful things, his face didn’t light up. But when I asked him if he really wanted to make something beautiful, I couldn’t help but get the feeling that he couldn’t crack on. The next day, he asked me if there were any other resources he could use…
Miki: This is the expression on his face right after he created it.
Kajikawa: It’s true. She’s laughing (laughs).
Miki: We’ve seen this many times, and we’ve experienced what happens inside a person many times, so we know when they’re like, “Oh, this just came down.
Kajikawa: You can tell?
Miki: I was able to make it come down with a bang.
Utsunomiya: The expression on your face is different from the day before when you were saying, “I’m going to make something beautiful.
Miki: This is a really strange thing that happens. This is Mr. Kajikawa’s chart, by the way, but at that time, it was still an object, wasn’t it? Making things.
Kajikawa: That’s right. I can’t get it out of my head, can I? It’s like a company scene.
Utsunomiya: But that’s because you’re the president, isn’t it?
Miki: You write something with a “bang”. He wants to surprise us.
Kajikawa: He also used to say, “It’s not like a factory. “It doesn’t look like a factory,” or “It doesn’t look like a president.
Utsunomiya: But you’re aware that you haven’t left machining yet…
Kajikawa: But if you think you have to use machine tools…
Miki: “Corporate value = the ability to challenge what you want to do”…
Kajikawa: That’s a great description. That’s the kind of company we want to be. We don’t want people who don’t take on challenges, or we don’t want them to come here.
Miki: It says something like, “A company that does things other than manufacturing.
Kajikawa: That’s good. We do events, so we’re doing things that aren’t manufacturing.
Miki: So this is the process you went through to create the Factory Art Museum.
Utsunomiya: It’s amazing to see so many things come together in this place.
Kajikawa: Things, too. It’s amazing, isn’t it?
