Natural dyeing, natural dyes, handweaving, yarn making, farming, old tools and machines, AI, records, and sharing what we learn. At first glance, these may seem like separate things, but at Hitotsuya, they are all connected.
We receive color from nature, grow plants, make yarn, and weave cloth —.
We also look again at old tools and machines, record our daily uncertainties and failures, and turn them into wisdom for the next step —.
At the root of all this is the idea of finding and nurturing the things within our work that we can truly become absorbed in.
When Hitotsuya speaks of “work,” we do not mean work that is simply easy or profitable.
It takes time and effort.
We fail.
Things do not always go as planned.
That is why there is never enough time, and we are always busy —.
Even so, we want to know more.
We want to try again.
We want to continue tomorrow.
And before we know it, we are thinking about it so much that it makes us tired —.
Finding the part of our work that we can become absorbed in. And little by little, reshaping the work itself into something we can become absorbed in. That is what “work” means to Hitotsuya.
One idea we value for this is “Onko Chishin”.
It does not mean simply feeling nostalgic about the past. Literally, it means “visiting the old to learn the new.”