story

Nice to meet you. My name is Iwai Tatsumi, and I'm a designer.
As a designer, I have worked with many artisans on products, focusing on traditional crafts from the Tohoku region. Utilizing this experience, I am launching the brand "Gonbu" in my hometown of Gonohemachi, Aomori Prefecture.

Here in Aomori,
Horses and humans have lived together, supporting each other, since ancient times.

During the Sengoku period, horses fought alongside samurai, during the Edo period they were partners in agriculture and forestry, and even in modern times, when our grandparents were alive, horses were still used as a means of transportation.

When a horse dies, condolence letters are distributed throughout the town, and it seems that horses and people have lived together as important members of the family.

However, with economic growth and the spread of cars, fewer people are riding horses, and even in Gonohe Town, which has long been known as the "horse town," the only main horse-related industries are now horse riding experiences and horse meat dishes.

Horses are animals that humans have been raising for 5,000 years. Since wild horses are already extinct, it is said that unless someone raises them, they will not survive to the next generation. A ranch that operates a horse meat shop in Gonohe Town is raising as many horse breeds as possible for the next generation.

"I hope that in the future more people will ride horses, but for now, all we can do is feed and keep the family alive."

Not only in the horse meat industry, but also in the horse racing industry, attention is being paid to the fate of retired horses that can no longer run fast. The situation surrounding horses is complicated, but no one could have predicted how much society would develop in the last 50 years, and perhaps it is inevitable.

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I only recently learned this fact, but I grew up eating horse meat as a local dish. My grandparents ran apple farms in Gonohe Town for generations, and we were mostly self-sufficient.

My grandmother would cook horse meat hotpot, and my grandfather would cook chicken hotpot made with chickens he had raised and slaughtered. Living in close proximity to nature and animals, and feeling the sense of receiving life, became a formative experience for me.

After that, my father was transferred and we lived in the city, but I felt a gap between that and the countryside, so I didn't go to school much during my middle and high school years and instead immersed myself in making various things.

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One day, while searching for materials at a craft store, I happened upon a leather section. I was somehow drawn to the "smell of animals" that could be felt even in the city, and by imitating others, I started leather crafting at the age of 18. I went on to art university and gained experience in various fields of design, then returned to Aomori after a hiatus of over 10 years, and I realized something.

"Now that I think of it, I wonder what happens to the horse skin after it has been turned into horse meat?" "Perhaps it is possible to turn the horse skin, after it has been enjoyed as delicious horse meat, into horse leather."

On a whim, I consulted a butcher in the shopping district, and he agreed to give me the rawhide after the horse meat had been turned into horse meat.

The maximum number of animals that can be donated is about 100 per year.
This is a precious horse leather that is never produced in large quantities.

In fact, most of the Japanese leather known as "domestic leather" is actually imported from Europe, America, and China. Because overseas countries have accumulated more know-how about leather products than Japan, the quality control of raw leather is said to be more stable.

On the other hand, most of the raw hides used for meat in Japan are not used for leather, but are crushed and discarded.

Looking back at the history of leather in Japan, it was mainly used by hunters to wear fur, and it was only in the last few decades that the leather industry began to take root. In Aomori Prefecture, there was a time when horsehide was used as the membrane for Nebuta drums, but now the number of drum artisans has decreased and there are fewer ways to use it.

Therefore, in Japan where stable leather processing routes have not yet been established, we start by collecting raw hides one by one from meat processing plants and salting them by hand.

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If you ask whether there is any point in going to the trouble of making leather in a different way than before, it may not be economically rational.

However, in the north, there is a culture that has survived by eating animal meat to increase virility, wearing fur, and sometimes even using animal fat.

There is much to learn from the environment in which life revolved around only the materials that existed in small settlements, and from Aomori, where vestiges of that lifestyle still remain, we would like to pass on values that will be useful for life in the future.

Depending on the actions we take from now on, the time may come when we can return to seeing horses as "partners" for humans, rather than as "economic animals."

Gobun wants to be a brand that not only produces horse leather, but also finds ways to extend the lifespan of horses and to find a positive relationship between people and nature.

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I grew up in Aomori and was given life there.
It becomes leather and is then further developed by human hands.

Leather is not just a material,
We value the fact that it is originally "life,"
We will continue to create products that can be continued for a long time.