Third-generation bag craftsman weaves school bags into “adult bags” Imamura Sei Co., Ltd. Press Release: July 31, 2025 To Members of the Media [The Challenge of a Third-Generation Leather Bag Craftsman] From a small back to a mother’s life. The handiwork of a bag craftsman who knits and continues to weave school bags.
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/166614/4/166614-4-b3ca75f658c407da18b4c1d8c07e4cda-2500×1500.png Imamura Bag Shop, a company that has been making bags for three generations in Higashinari Ward, Osaka City, has launched the custom-made remake brand “tumugi,” which repurposes outdated children’s school bags and turns them into bags for mothers. Based on the concept of “weaving” a child’s growth and a mother’s future, This brand is based on the concept of “weaving” a child’s growth and a mother’s future. The brand processes randoseru backpacks into strings and weaves them with cowhide to create a beautiful, flexible mesh material. The brand uses a new technique (the first in the industry, according to the company). Setting itself apart from traditional accessory remakes, ours combine practicality for everyday use with stylish design. Our artisans handcraft these one-of-a-kind bags using a process we call custom remake. [1] The path of a bag craftsman taken over by a young third-generation owner We were founded in 1947 by our founder, Seiichiro Imamura, as a manufacturer of women’s bags. We manufactured and wholesaled products as a subcontractor for department store wholesalers nationwide. As the third generation, I was forced to take over the family business 30 years ago, when I was a 21-year-old university student, following the sudden death of my father, the second-generation owner. At the time, it was still common for the eldest son to take over the business, so the role fell to me, despite my complete lack of management knowledge or experience. However, the company was run solely by my father’s sales skills, so sales plummeted shortly after I took over, and the amount of work we were giving out to our in-house outsourced craftsmen gradually decreased. The more I thought I had to work hard, the more difficult this situation became, as I didn’t know what to do or how to do it, and it continued for years.
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/166614/4/166614-4-85b9468fb6efa24bfb224555b231d588-350×350.png Scenery of the workshop [2] Seeking skills, he trained abroad, disassembling Hermès bags to learn. To somehow overcome this difficult situation, he decided to hone his skills as a bag maker, traveling multiple times to Italy and France. He learned bag making from local artisans. He was particularly impressed by the beauty and delicate craftsmanship of Hermès bags, so he purchased second-hand Hermès items, disassembled them, and studied their structure and sewing techniques, struggling to develop marketable products.
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/166614/4/166614-4-c187ddb84ab29d8ecb0268db25c8b3f3-3900×2600.jpg Disassembly and research of Hermes [3] 20 Years as a Custom-Made Craftsman, and Struggles Then, one day, I happened to see a bag I made from kimono lining featured in a magazine, and it caught the eye of a sales company in Kyoto, which led to sales events at kimono stores across the country. The sales there were extremely well-received, and for the next 20 years I continued making semi-custom bags as a subcontractor, wholesale to kimono stores. However, due to the constraint of not being able to interact directly with customers, the freedom that is unique to custom-made products, such as the ability to make suggestions to customers, tended to be lost, and I continued to feel frustrated as a craftsman.
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/166614/4/166614-4-4202391b5ce275425a29c01efc58c097-640×480.jpg Custom-made bag made 10 years ago [4] “Turn school bags into bags” – a friend’s suggestion led to the creation of “tumugi.” Then, a friend’s wife approached me and asked me to make something using her child’s school bag. This was the impetus for the launch of the new brand, “tumugi.” The wife was troubled, saying, “I’ve been looking online for repurposed school bags, but I can’t find anything good.” Since school bags are made of hard material and the usable surface area is limited, the only ways to repurpose them are to make small items like pencil cases or photo frames. So I wondered if there was a way to remake the randoseru into a bag that my wife could use every day. At the time, I had a mesh bag that I had made myself, and I had the idea that I could use that technique to turn the randoseru into a mesh bag. I
immediately purchased a used randoseru from an online store, cut the flap into a thin string to adjust the thickness, and wove it into the soft cowhide leather that is our standard material. I was able to transform the stiff randoseru material into a flexible one. The wife was very happy that her child’s school bag had been transformed into a mesh bag that could be used everyday.
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/166614/4/166614-4-646ce8c331c1741cc86c777055d6b4ed-2031×2700.jpg Cutting a school bag
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/166614/4/166614-4-c1bf3a86d0846781d7364ed670a6763b-3024×2420.jpg Knitted mesh material [5] “Weaving Thoughts into Custom Remakes”: A New Challenge Although we are a small workshop with one craftsman and one assistant, we carry out the entire process, from purchasing leather to cutting and sewing. By connecting the precious memories of a child’s school bag that they spent six years with with the irreplaceable everyday life of their mother, we hope that our custom-made remake bags at tumugi can add a little color to our customers’ kind, enriching worlds. In the future, we aim to create bags that touch the hearts of even more people by not only making school bags, but also custom-made mesh bags made from leather jackets and designer bags filled with memories.
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https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/166614/4/166614-4-d473de873d6c853f668615ea671f60ab-3900×2925.jpg Company name: Imamura Sei Co., Ltd. Representative: Kohei Imamura Address: 3-13-13 Kamiji, Higashinari-ku, Osaka 537-0003 Phone: 06-6971-1326 Email: seinoji@gmail.com Site:
https://www.kabanyaimamura.com/
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