Komiya Shoten Umbrellas

It's raining. You walk into the nearest store, pick an umbrella – the least ugly one. Or the cheapest one. Or the only one they have left. You buy it and move on with life. Who even thinks about umbrellas anymore...?

Komiya Shoten does.

Komiya Shoten was established in 1930 in Central Tokyo. Ever since, for almost a hundred years, they have made umbrellas and only umbrellas.

Each umbrella is hand made by their expert craftspeople, and they make them with exacting attention to detail, deep thought about their users, and in the most beautiful colors and patterns.

Today, we introduce the "Kasane" series from Komiya Shoten.

The "Kasane" series

The Kasane series is one of Komiya Shoten's best selling products. It is lightweight, sturdy, and comes in beautiful colors.

The secret to the Kasane's beauty, is its Koshu Ori (甲州織); a high-density, soft fabric that has been woven near the foothills of Mt. Fuji for over 400 years.

Woven from two sets of fine threads, each side of the fabric has a different color.

The process of making this beautiful fabric is so intricate, that a whole day of work produces only about 4 meters (13 feet) of cloth. This fabric is then treated, making it water and UV resistant.

Once the fabric is ready, Komiya Shoten's experts craft the shell handle, the spokes that give the umbrella its beautiful contour, the sturdy carbon fiber shaft, and other parts, focusing even on the tiniest details.

If you think we exaggerate how much thought and care goes into this process, Komiya Shoten runs a whole training program for their staff, and workshops for budding umbrella makers!

Where can I buy it?

The Kasane series is available in a dazzling array of colors, as well as two sizes (60cm and 55cm). Thanks to the UV coating, it is a great parasol for summer too.

• Amazon Japan (delivers internationally)
  
  Note: Amazon auto-translates product titles and descriptions from Japanese to English, and a lot of nuance is lost in the process.