Profile
Tatsuya Uemachi, Representative of secca inc.
After graduating from university, worked as a product designer for a camera manufacturer. After retiring, he moved to Kanazawa and established "secca," a group of creators who create unprecedented experiences by crossing various technologies, from traditional to cutting-edge, and creating products based on new skills and interpretations. The first thing he started after founding the company was a restaurant specializing in hashed rice called "Yoroshiya. Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
How did you come to make hashed rice?
This90-year-old machiya is a rare Western-style house in Kanazawa.The building is designated as an important cultural property by Kanazawa City and was originally the site of a flag shop. If I were to serve one dish here, what would it be? Curry rice is not interesting. Then how about hashed rice? That is where the story of Yoroshiya began.
As soon as I found the property, I started training under a cook and spent half a year making special hayashi rice, and at the same time making a special vessel. The concept is "a vessel that makes hayashi rice the most beautiful and delicious." There are many vessels that are easy to scoop.However, most of them are for nursing care or for infants, and are not in harmony with beauty. I decided to create a vessel that would allow beauty and functionality to coexist, and together with founding member Yanai, we createdsecca's signature product;『scoop』。
I made the hashed rice, and Yanai designed the bowls. This was our first collaboration.
What Mr. Uemachi values.
I feel that the sense of receiving and consuming things that we take for granted has become rare. When things were poor, there was a sense of appreciation for each and every one of them. The time I spent watching my mother's back as she cooked was an invaluable experience, as was the time I spent receiving value in the act of eating.
Nowadays, everyone has to work, and they can't afford to show it. In such an environment, it is difficult, for example, to understand the feelings of those working upstream in the food industry. That is because it is a view that is not visible in everyday life. But I wanted to convey the thoughts of people involved in food as a creator.
If we try to communicate too seriously, it becomes too academic, so our hints are the sensations of "delicious" and "fun. We believe that by creating opportunities for people to experience simple sensations, they will ultimately feel what we want to convey.
I visited various cafes in Kanazawa and Noto, and I love Tachibana's coffee from "Tachibana Coffee". It includes all the way of thinking. "I would like to ask for coffee that goes well with Hayashi rice from the restaurant," he asked me to make an original coffee.Even now,, the coffee we drink every day in the seccaoffice is still Mr. Tachibana's coffee beans.
For example, I was talking with Tachibana-san the other day. He said that due to the weather and other reasons, he could only get coffee beans from a certain farm that were not in good condition this year.Normally, we would have given up purchasing them this year. However, Mr. Tachibana finds the unique qualities of the beans in their current state and focuses on how to bring them out.In doing so, another new approach to beans is created.
"Something only that person can do."
I am attracted to such things.
The things that come out of a conversation that goes off the beaten path are more interesting and human than the answers that have no margins, which are derived from efficiency.
Yuichi Takemata, owner of 『KIKU』 in Kanazawa's Shin-Tatemachi.
As a metalworker, he makes jewelry, cutlery, tea ceremony utensils, and other items. Takemata creates his works by heating, beating, and bending iron in a kind of alchemy.
He came to us for consultation after hearing a rumor about secca and its "interesting technology. The first project we cooperated with him on was an obi-dome for a haori (Japanese traditional sash belt).The order was outside the realm of existing metalworking techniques: "We want to create a mizuhiki motif in metal. We analyzed the foreshadowing of mizuhiki and created a prototype digitally. The client was interested in our work, and we began a business relationship.
Presenting New Values
The most impressive work is the tea spoon of the tea master Furuta Oribe - which is reproduced with a titanium3D printer.Instead of simply making a copy with the same materials, they recreate Oribe's handiwork using completely different materials and techniques.The order was given that this would increase the value of the original and create new value for the copy as well.A high-definition3Dscanner was used to read the original, remove noise, and create a titanium teaspoon with the exact same shape as the real thing for delivery.
Creation of KIKU.
Mr. Takemata's manufacturing is consistently shaped under the value of "good things" that he thinks.He intentionally removes the bias that "craftsmanship=handmade work is valuable."We actively adopt industrial mechanisms such as machine processing, and if a process can be perfected better by mechanization, we honestly choose machine processing, leaving the beauty that can only be expressed by handwork to skilled handiwork.The means does not become the end, but the end determines the means.
For example, if you want to cut out a metal sheet in a perfect regular circle, you can do it by hand. However, machining is cheaper, faster, and more accurate to cut out the desired shape.An interesting point is that "handwork" always intervenes in Takemata's works. This is a manifestation of Mr. Takemata's character, which is determined by his sense of value of "good and beautiful things.
Creation is a cross between a system created by industry and value creation that can only be done by human hands. Without being bound by existing values, we create products in a way that we think is good and do business with a sense of value that we have uniquely discovered.It is because we feel such a flatness that we are able to talk and be influenced by each other.
The theme of "humanity" is an important one for me.
For example, thoughts and actions such as "efficiently" and "because everyone else is doing this" gradually move toward erasing the human handprint. That may be important in an economy.
A kind of human handprint or sentiment. I want to intentionally capture what is created in an accidental conversation. That kind of drama is important. In times like these, I don't want the world to be inorganic. Monozukuri should not lean toward efficiency alone. I want to feel "human presence" more.
seccaの代表作「Landscape Ware」
Vessels of the landscape. The relationship between the vessel and the food reminds us of the relationship between the earth and architecture.
Instead of creating vessels that the chef seeks, we create vessels that serve as the earth, and ask, "What do you build on top of this?" The question is posed to the chef. From the ups and downs and shadows, a new cuisine begins.
What do you want to do in the future?
Anyway, I want to create what I want to create, and deliver it to people who will be pleased with it, giving it my all and making them happy. All I can think about is to make this composition clearer and clearer.I've been talking with my colleagues for a long time about how to make it simpler, and if we were to make it less businesslike, we would be forced to work for work's sake.
Everyone has strengths and weaknesses.is an organization where each specialty is gathered and covered by each other's strengths.The goal is to create a place where people can bring out their strengths when they participate. As long as that is in place, I believe that good things will be born on their own.
They are the ones who would have made it even if they had been left alone in the first place. Ideally, such people should be able to find a place where they can be most active. The goal remains the same, but the way we do things changes every day.It is updated and changed as we meet people. But the direction we are heading has not changed at all since we started up.