Corporate profile

HIDA TAKAYAMA is one of the most famous places in Japan for wooden furniture. Its craft history began at the beginning of the 20th century. In those days, the founder of Hida Sangyo,Masanosuke Sirakawa, launched a new enterprise of producing wooden furniture utilizing the rich forests of beech, which had previously been regarded as useless. Now Hida Sangyo is one of the oldest wooden furniture companies in Japan.

In the 1920s, Hida Sangyo began exporting their products to China and Korea, and in 1937 to the U.S.A. After World War�U, the company also started to produce commodities, in order to contribute to economic recovery.

In December 2000, Sanzo Okada assumed the directorship and decided to produce wooden furniture with "knots", which had previously been regarded taboo. But this range was successful beyond all expectations, and broke the norm in the world of Japanese traditional furniture.

In 2005, Hida Sangyo was producing a new series of furniture using Japanese indigenous species "sugi" (Japanese cedar), in collaboration with the Italian designer Enzo Mari.

In 2011, Hida Sangyo has moved to the new factory. Hida Sangyo has been engaged in environmentally friendly manufacturing by installing solar power generation and pellet boiler.

The Hearts and Techniques of Hida Master Craftsmen

One fine day in 1920 (the 9th year of the Taisho era), two travelers came to a town in Hida Takayama, a mountainous area near the Northern Japan Alps of Gifu, and they passed down the technique of making Western bentwood furniture. This story touched the hearts of some people in town of Takayama. They got together and decided to take stakes in launching a western furniture manufacturer by utilizing the traditional technique known as “Master Craftsmanship of Hida” and also the virgin “Buna (beech)” forests growing thick in mountains as the resources. This was the birth of epoch-making “Venture Business” at the time. Those craftsmen never seen a thing called “chair” before but supported by the years of experiences and the knowledge of wood taken a process of trial and error countless times and also exercising their own ingenuity had finally come to produce after 2 years a chair with “Shunkeinuri (shunkei lacquer ware)” which is also a local traditional technique, and they were able to confidently put the chair into the world.

Since then, the furniture of Hida Sangyo have been cultivated by the western culture through displaying modernism which was the beauty of early Showa Era to their furniture, nurturing the Japanese culture of furniture, and placing the exporting of their furniture to the USA as the core of their production. After the World War II, Hida Sangyo’s excellent design and quality gained popularity and by manufacturing various long-selling products, the furniture of Hida Sangyo has established a firm place in Japanese lifestyles. Carrying on the founding spirit of the company to this day, the new challenges and creativity of Hida Sangyo such as introducing under-used resources and utilization of scrap wood for furniture production have further enhanced to produce furniture which are deeply rooted in the climate and culture of Japan

Message from the President

There is richness to the Hida Sangyo’s over 90 years of history. And Hida Sangyo also accumulated skills and techniques. Needless to say, we would like to build further trust upon these. But even more, since a piece of furniture is a thing which owner will put some special feelings to and more you use it more memories engraved in it. It will become more attached to the person who uses it. So I want people to use even just a piece of furniture for as many years as possible. Hida Sangyo would like to take importance of each and every piece of furniture we manufacture as well as each and every customer we encounter. I would like to expand the “cumulative shares” after 10 years, 20 years and 100 years later. This is my dream and also the dream of Hida Sangyo.

The row material for furniture is wood and wood has life. We who love wood value the life of wood and the environment which nurture wood. Having such things in mind, Hida Sangyo started developing furniture by positively utilizing wood with knots, and also producing furniture with using “Sugi (Japanese cedar)”. All the glue and paints we use at Hida Sangyo are the ones which won’t burden the environment.

The culture begins from manufacturing or creating products. In this local vicinity with the history of “Master Craftsmanship of Hida” being continuously upheld, and by us showing firm stance to properly take up craftsmanship or manufacturing will lead to revitalization of wooden culture of Hida and moreover it will further lead to support the wooden culture of Japan as a whole. We, Hida Sangyo, are trying to go forward step by step with the aim of becoming a company which can disseminate the spirits of Japanese manufacturing to the world.

Factory & Showrooms

The head office

3180 Urushigaitou, Takayama City, Gifu 506-8686 JAPAN
Tel.0081-577-32-1001 Fax.0081-577-34-9185

The factory

2593 Urushigaitou, Takayama City, Gifu 506-8687 JAPAN
Tel.0081-577-32-1005 Fax.0081-577-34-9185

Hokkaido factory

194 Okayama, Mikasa City, Hokkaido 068-2165 JAPAN
Tel.0081-1267-2-5931 Fax.0081-1267-3-1127

Showrooms

Certification

ISO 9001

FSC COC

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HIDA SANGYO Co.,LTD.
Head Office 3180 Urushigaitou Takayama Gifu 506-8686 JAPAN
Tel.0081-577-32-1001 Fax.0081-577-34-9185
URL http://kitutuki.co.jp
E-mail info@kitutuki.co.jp