Interview] "If only we could get people to look at the problems around them. The story behind the "Inoshika no hides," a locally produced gacha where you can get real leather products, was born out of a rather serious awareness of the issues!

The "Boar Deer Leather" capsule toy has caused a stir among gacha fans because of the availability of real boar and deer leather.

Some readers may remember that this product is limited to the community space "Fujino Ekimae Portrade" in front of JR Fujino Station in Sagamihara City, Kanagawa Prefecture, and was introduced in "Akiba Research Institute's" serial column "Wacky Kaiyama's Latest Gacha Exploration".

⇒ " Real boar deer leather" and "graves" as capsule toys! This month's gacha is very sharp! Wacky Kaizan's latest gacha exploration No. 44

This product is sold by Taro Mukasa of "Zarigani Works. The leather is provided by Mr. Ryo and Mrs. Ritsuko Ichihara of "Horokusha," a company in Fujino that manufactures animal leather products in parallel with farming.

In this interview, we would like to ask how they came up with such an unusual product as "real leather" and "locally produced gacha" (not "local gacha"). We also asked Mr. Mukasa (top image, right) and Mr. Ryo Ichihara about the development of "Chisan-Gacha" with what kind of thoughts they have in mind.

───Thank you very much for your time today. Once again, ...... is really leather (laughs). First of all, please tell us how this gacha-gacha was born.

I am a member of a charcoal-making club called the "Charcoal Making Club" based in the Shinohara district of Fujino, and when I made a gacha-gacha (toy) to let people know more about charcoal, the response was quite strong. I thought, "This is an interesting idea," and was looking for the next item to make into a gacha-gacha (toy toy box).

At that time, I was chatting with Ichihara-kun on the way to and from his child's daycare (Takekasa-san and Ichihara-san's children attend the same daycare), and he told me that he was a leather processor. He told me that he processes leather from wild animals and that there were bullet holes in the leather! Give me that" (laughs).

When I heard that the leather of wild animals has many scars and scratches that are unusable, I thought it would be nice if I could put it in a 200 yen machine and have a casual experience of touching it, since there are not many opportunities to touch wild boar or deer leather. From there, I started working out a plan with Ichihara-kun to put scrap wood into the gacha-gacha.

──What did you think at first, Mr. Ichihara, when you heard that leather could be used in Gacha Gacha?

Ichihara: Even before I heard about the idea, I thought it would be great to have a charcoal gacha gacha, and it did cross my mind that they could use my leather in the gacha. Then Taro really approached me about it, and I said, "By all means! I said, "By all means!

───How was the reaction of the people around you?

Takekasa: They were quite amused. This town itself is known as an "art town," but I have the impression that not many subcultures have entered the area. That is why I think the combination of Fujino's nature conservation and satoyama activities and gacha-gacha, which is the opposite of what it is, had such an impact.

─ Did you see an increase in the number of customers due to the influence of the locally produced gacha?

Takekasa: Yes. The day after we released the leather gacha, about six families with their children came all the way from outside the city to play with it, and even though it was only six families, I secretly think it is actually amazing that we were able to pull in customers from so far away just from the gacha gacha.

───I would like to talk with Mr. Ichihara. What memories do you have of gacha yourself?

Ichihara: When I was a child, I was not allowed to have an allowance, so I don't remember playing gacha myself. So, I got Gundam gachachas that my friends were playing with, and that's about it.

Takekasa So you got a Gundam Gachacha from a friend who had a duplicate?

Ichihara Yes, that's right. I also wanted to buy Bikkuriman stickers and Card Das, but I only got my friends' stickers once in a while, so I was never that into Gacha-gacha. But now that I have a daughter, when we go to the zoo and I ask her what she wants to buy, she always wants to play with gakachas. I guess kids like the experience of playing a lottery where they don't know what they are going to get.

I was talking with Taro about this, and to be honest, from an adult's point of view, I don't mean to be rude, but there is a sense that (gacha-gacha) is something that you are going to throw away anyway. But it's interesting to see organic materials, like leather, that could be used for something.

Takekasa: Yes, yes. It's not unusable (laughs). I think it's good to have a messy experience where you can think of ways to use it.

Ichihara: I also grow vegetables, so at first we talked about how it would be nice if vegetables appeared, but we concluded that it would be difficult to make food.

───I understand that you are involved in a variety of activities.

Ichihara: I am also involved in agriculture. To tell you about my origins, I first entered a technical college to study shoe making. After graduation, I worked for a shoe manufacturer for about four years. My wife was also working for another shoemaker, and we met at a leather tanning workshop. Halfway through, I decided I wanted to do agriculture, so I changed jobs in about 2014. I started working in Oiso Town in Kanagawa Prefecture, working in agriculture. After that, I wanted to put my daughter in a school in Fujino, so I moved there last year and started farming on my own.

At that time, I wanted to work with leather as well, but I didn't want to buy cowhide from a supplier and make amazing products myself; I wanted to make things for my daily life with what was available in the area. In Yamagata Prefecture, where I lived on loan when I was a shoemaker, there was still a culture of providing food, clothing, and shelter with materials from the nearby mountains and fields. I thought it was nice to have materials close at hand. So, if I was going to work with leather, I didn't want to do it unless it was something that could be picked nearby.

I had been aware of the problem since I was working in Oiso Town, but when I came to Fujino, I saw once again that the damage caused by wild boars, deer, and monkeys was a serious problem. I also heard that the number of these animals had increased since the year before I arrived. I haven't caught any myself yet, but I would like to develop my skills so that I can eventually start catching them myself. I want to use leather while protecting my vegetables. That is where the necessity of leatherworking lies for me.

─ So the leather gacha is closely connected to your life, isn't it?

Ichihara Yes, it is. Right now, I get rawhide from my neighbor who exterminates animals with a gun. There is no watering hole at my place of work yet, so the processing begins with removing excess meat and fat from the rawhide by the river. I sharpen the tip of my knife to a round point and remove the fat, but it soon stops cutting, so I sharpen it again in the river, remove the fat, and repeat the process. At first, it took about two to three hours per piece. Recently, I think I've gotten to the point where I can do it in about one hour per piece.

I have the greased rawhide tanned for about 5,000 yen per sheet through an initiative called the "Matagi Project," which accepts the tanning process of animal hides in units of one sheet.

Takekasa We are given surplus leather from this process and put it in capsules.

Ichihara: Ordinary leather is basically taken from animals that are safely enclosed, such as pigs and cows for food, so it is clean and without many scratches. However, the skins of wild animals have many scars, bullet holes, and small holes made by insects, so they are not good quality leather. So there are many parts that cannot be used for products.

Takekasa: Recently, wild animals have been coming down to human settlements, causing direct damage to farmers and other people. So I thought it would be good if we could raise the issue by having people touch real leather.

I don't think it comes up in urban areas, but in recent years there has been a sharp increase in animal damage in mountainous areas. This is connected to charcoal making, but it is a problem between the mountains and people. Therefore, I feel that gacha-gacha has potential as a medium that can be used to attract more people's attention to the mountains.

─ ─ Inside the capsule, in addition to leather and mini books, there is a photo of you, isn't there?

Ichihara This is a piece of paper introducing my husband and I (laughs).

Takekasa: I hope that people will understand not only the product itself, but also its story, and that it will be a thing of discovery and surprise. Following the "charcoal" seal, we have also added a "beast" seal.

─ ─ Looking at the contents of this product, it is obvious that the price of 200 yen is not worth the original price, isn't it?

Takekasa That's right. Right now, I only have an old Slim Boy cabinet that can only be set at 200 yen, so I'm selling it for 200 yen for crying out loud (laughs). I am completely disregarding profit.

─ By the way, Zarigani Works is headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo.

Takekasa: I tend to refrain from going out now, so I work from home a lot, but before that I used to come to Shibuya about 4-5 days a week. Fujino is an interesting place because it is rich in nature and I can do that without any difficulty.

───What made you move to Fujino in the first place?

I had an acquaintance who lived in Fujino, and I often came to visit him, but the people I met there were all very interesting. I was looking for a place to move to when my child started preschool, so I decided to move there. If it had been in a rural area further away from Tokyo, for example, I would have been more confused about what to do with my work base, but Fujino seemed like a place where I could continue my work in Tokyo, so I thought it was a good choice.

─ I was surprised when I got off at the station and suddenly there was a love letter sitting on a mountain (laughs). It is an interesting town, isn't it? The store I am interviewing here is stylish, and art and daily life are connected.

Ichihara I also think it is a very interesting town. There are many events and various community-building efforts, and it is easy to get to know people. There are many immigrants here, and when I look at the students attending the daycare center, 90% of them are immigrant families.

There are many people who commute to the city center for work from here, and it doesn't feel like a rural area. If you go a little further into the mountains, there is a lot of nature, but you can talk about city-like culture. And then there is the food culture. There are many people who provide not only ingredients but also delicious food, and I am very grateful for that.

─ If you were to continue the local production gacha in the future, what would you like to put in the capsules next?

Takekasa: I think it will probably be something from the mountains. The idea is not to say, "We can get this much of a local product, so how do we sell it?" but rather to introduce the problems of our own surroundings.

So, for example, the next issue would be cedar and cypress. There are problems in the local forestry industry, and we would like to bring attention to them with a gacha-gacha (messenger toy). The product may be Fujino's cedar cypress, but in the larger scheme of things, I think it could be a problem for all the mountains in Japan. But since it is a gacha-gacha, I try not to forget that I am developing products for people to enjoy.

─ ─ I also felt this when I visited Fujino for the interview and walked around the station, but living in the city, it is easy to forget that there are many people in Japan, including those in the mountains, who live in harmony with nature, and that each area has its own local lifestyle, culture, and problems. Therefore, I believe that this local product gacha will be an opportunity for people to rediscover what kind of country Japan is, in which they live.

By the way, what kind of value do you think Gacha-gacha will add in the future?

Takekasa: Gacha-gacha can be anything as long as it is placed in a capsule. Moreover, up until now, I imagined that the selling price would be 200 to 300 yen, but recently the price has been raised to 500 yen, and some of the latest machines can be set to a maximum of 2,500 yen. Also, since electronic money machines are now available, we are being freed from the aspect of price setting. So I think the possibilities of what's inside will expand considerably, and I think we are now in a period where the reform of gacha-gacha is beginning. I am looking forward to seeing what will happen in the future, and I would be happy to be a part of that reform.

───What would you like to do in the future?

Ichihara: I just started farming and leather processing last year, but one of my personal themes is to connect with the city center. What I want to do is not only sell vegetables through agriculture, but also sell "lifestyle and culture" in general.

Just yesterday, we hosted about 10 elementary school students from Kamakura for a Satoyama experience, and after they listened to what I talked about today, we had them do some leatherworking. In this way, I would like to conduct activities that allow people from the city center to experience and feel "what it means to live in the mountains" and "food, clothing, and shelter are connected to the soil. Things are generally born from the soil. I would be happy if people could remember that feeling.

<Click here to see the stores that carry our products.

Fujino Ekimae Portrade

Business hours: 12:00-18:00 every Friday and Saturday

Address : 2F, 1705 Obuchi, Midori-ku, Sagamihara-shi, Kanagawa Prefecture (2F of Izakaya Kazari)

URL : #