Kishiwada’s Furniture Makers

How to make a chest of drawers from planks of wood

Alena Eckelmann Mar 05, 2016 - 1 min read

Beautiful chest of drawers made by Hatsune no kagu, a family business with almost 100years of experience

The first step out of 14 steps in making a chest of drawers is to let the wood dry for about two years

Once the wood is try, it will be cut into planks

Wooden planks are assembled into the shape of a chest of drawers

Each employee deals with one step of the furniture making process - here making drawers

Another employee makes drawers and doors

This chest of drawers is almost ready now, just some doors are missing.

Hatsune no kagu has been in business for almost 100 years and the craft of manufacturing the chest of drawers has been passed on from grandfather to father to son. They employ ten people at their workshop and they sell the furniture they produced at their show-room in Kishiwada, the home of the Danjiri festival, at department stores and online. There are 14 steps to manufacture a chest of drawers. At Hatsune no kagu they are all done under one roof at their workshop. It takes three years to make a chest whereby step one, the drying of the wood, takes two years. Paulownia wood is dried naturally outside the workshop hall. Two years are necessary to dry the wood so that it does not move anymore.

Hatsune is an officially registered “Kishiwada Brand” and also a registered “Traditional Craft of Osaka”.

Alena Eckelmann @alena.eckelmann

Founder of Kii Monogatari, my story and the story of the Kii Peninsula of Japan. Originally from East Germany, I came to Tokyo, via Berlin and London, in 2005. In summer 2011 I moved by choice to remote Kumano in the south of the Kii Peninsula where I live, work and play now, and explore every da...