Claire Tanaka continues her series of interviews with creative people living in and around her home prefecture of Tokushima.
Michiko Tsuda makes handmade clothing and accessories. Her ethereal, fairy-tale designs are inspired by her travels to France. She sells her goods at local craft markets and out of her workshop, a pink trailer set on her parents land in the outskirts of Tokushima. Her grandmother helps out with lacy crochet and knit pieces. The antique lace, cloth, and other ephemera she picked up in the marches aux puces of Paris are a unique feature of her designs.
Michiko started sewing bags and other accessories to sell at the local weekend market when she was just barely a teenager. “I started when I was in my first year of junior high borrowing a corner of someone else’s space, and by the start of second grade I was renting my own stall at the market. My parents would help me carry my stuff and open the big canvas parasol for me and then just leave me there for the day and come pick me up in the evening. I did it all, the money management, all myself. If I had to go to the toilet, I got the person at the next stall to watch my stuff for me. The flea market was really popular then, so I earned pretty good money, and I had to manage it well. I’d save 70% of it and use the other 30% to buy more materials or other things I wanted. By the time I was in high school, I was making about 30,000 yen every weekend.”
“When I was in high school, I didn’t really go out to karaoke or anything. I put all my energy into doing the flea market. I’d go home and go straight to my sewing machine. I’d decide how many bags to make before the next flea market. I’d set my own quotas and then make it all. That was fun for me, and I was able to earn money too. Buying materials and calculating how much to charge for stuff so I could make a certain profit was fun for me. It was a good learning experience.”
She saved a million and a half yen by the time she graduated from high school. “I had it put aside, but of course when I moved to Tokyo there were so many things I saw that I wanted, so I used some of the money. I pretty much blew it all on the three trips to France that I took during college. But I’m glad I saved it. That’s how I was able to go to France, and the things I saw and bought there have become a great source of inspiration for me.”
Many young people leave Tokushima after graduating high school, intending never to return. Michiko left to study at Tokyo’s Bunka Fashion College, but after she graduated, she found she had to work long hours in a job she didn’t care about just to earn enough to live. After three years of this, she decided to move back in with her parents in order to save money and pursue her two dreams of spending a year experiencing life in France and of starting her own business.
Michiko initially had misgivings about returning to her country roots. “I moved to Tokyo after high school — in a sense, I abandoned my hometown. I thought there was nothing interesting here, nothing here for me. I went to Tokyo and got some credentials and got a lot of inspiration from living there. Honestly, I would have liked to have stayed and worked in Tokyo, but I figured if I was ever going to save any money I was going to have to move back in with my family. My parents also encouraged me to do this. When I first came back, I was like, ‘this place is so boring!’ but I started looking around and I found a lot of interesting little shops. I started to realize that Tokushima has its own character. There are a lot of shops where people are doing their own thing. Once I discovered that, I started to enjoy life here again. I feel like it really is possible to have a good night out on the town during the weekends here too. Everyone always says, ‘Where can I go to have a good time in this town? There’s nowhere to go.’ But actually I have no problem finding fun things to do. When I found those places, it made me think, ‘Well, Tokushima’s got this store, so it’s not such a bad place after all.’ I’d like it if I could make my store into a place like that for people too.”
She has come to see living with her family as a positive thing. “Since I’m living at home with my family, I have a certain freedom to try new things. I don’t have to worry about my income. Even if no money comes in, I’ll still be able to eat. That really frees me up to be able to do things at my own pace. If I had to earn enough to make a living, I’d be so frantic, I’d probably have to simplify my designs so I could produce them faster, and I’d have to focus only on things I know will sell. But now, I have the freedom to make things that I like. There are good and bad aspects to that, but the customers really like how I don’t compromise on my designs. They like how intricate and unusual the pieces are. If you have to make your living at a craft, you’ve got to think about what will sell, and only make that, so you wind up losing sight of your vision. It’s been a year since I quit my job to focus on the shop, and I’ve really been going slowly, at my own pace. I’ve been able to relax, and now I think I’m ready to pick up the pace a bit. This is an opportunity I’ve got to work for. Time to step on the gas.”
Claire Tanaka is a Canadian writer and translator based in Tokushima City.
