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A cAse study of best prActice in the integrAtion of mAteriAls technology And design to improve innovAtion

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Tendo Mokko is an innovative plywood

furniture maker based in tendo, yamagata,

Japan. The company has flourished

despite an unusually remote location,

making full use of design and technology

expertise to find inventive ways of

manufacturing with an unpredictable

raw material. The story of Tendo Mokko’s

early development has been researched

by Royal College of Art historian of design

and manufacturing Sarah Teasley for this

InnoMatNet case study.

ConsorTiuM

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best prActice in mAteriAls And design

Sarah Teasley is an historian of

design and manufacturing at the

Royal College of Art in London,

who grew up around the sights and

smells of her grandfathers’ wood and

automotive workshops. She defines

her role as ‘history for practice’ –

making observations, connections

and comparisons in order to explore

issues such as:

• How do manufacturers and

designers adapt to changing

conditions, processes, materials

and technologies?

• How do these shape the built

environment and daily life?

• How can lessons from the

past make today’s design and

manufacturing better?

In Teasley’s view, the history of

plywood furniture is particularly apt

for these questions as it involves both

machinery and material innovation,

technology transfer, sustainability,

funding and the role of design.

“I was halfway up a mountain, talking

with designers and engineers about

plywood furniture manufacturing in Japan

in the 1950s and ‘60s, while eating wild

mushroom stew in northern Japan. I was

there because Tendo Mokko is a brilliant

company for thinking about technology,

materials and all the different constraints

and propellers for innovation.”

dr sarah Teasley

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Sarah Teasley’s research looks at

Japanese furniture manufacturer Tendo

Mokko, rather than the more obvious

Nordic countries, because in the postwar

period Japanese firms created innovative

plywood furniture in a competitive yet

collaborative environment, drawing on

local skills and materials and participating

in international networks. origins & drivers for innovaTion Tendo Mokko was founded in 1940 by a

group of eleven ornamental carpenters

who, faced with a wartime decline in

house building, decided it would be more

efficient to bid for government contracts

if they worked together.

They shared a fundamental curiosity

about how wood works, how it can

be manipulated and what its specific

properties can offer the maker.

The group spent the war years making

wooden boxes for munitions, and were

commissioned to develop mock aircraft

to divert American bombers. Despite

their traditional background, they

became interested in advanced overseas

manufacturing techniques, e.g. those used

in production of British Mosquito aircraft.

Manufacturers, craftsmen and design

researchers began talking with each

other, spending time at each other’s

institutes and companies, all inspired by

a fascination with plywood materials, as

well the business opportunity.

Sarah Teasley believes that Japan is

a very useful comparison for Britain,

Germany and other EU countries as it

also industrialised in the 19th century, so

contrasts can be made about successes,

failures and the factors involved.

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best prActice in mAteriAls And design best prActice in mAteriAls And design

role of business enTrepreneur The group soon realised that they

needed business acumen as well as

technical excellence to grow the market

for their products. They also had to

overcome their isolated location in

mountainous Northern Japan, an area

locals jokingly referred to as ‘the Tibet

of Japan’.

They started by recruiting a business

entrepreneur with strong networking

skills who established new marketing

outlets through Tokyo department stores.

The entrepreneur and Tendo Mokko’s

technical lead saw the need to modernise

the company’s manufacturing processes

and contacted the government-backed

Industrial Arts Research Institute (IARI),

a specialist in plywood design and

technology located over the mountains.

By 1945 they had gained considerable

manufacturing experience, built up

stocks of wood and fuel, and were very

quickly able to make the transition into

a post-war economy. They began the

new era making folding dining tables and

other furniture for people living in very

small, temporary accommodation during

the re-building of Japan.

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role of loCal researCh insTiTuTe The Research Institute’s role was to

research how traditional local industries

and materials could be updated for

contemporary markets. Many of the staff

were trained in furniture and product

design, others had a hands-on training in

materials R&D. They introduced a strong

design and technical understanding

which complemented the craft expertise

at Tendo Mokko.

Tendo Mokko had the advantage of

having access to plentiful, untouched

local supplies of wood to manufacture

plywood furniture. However, this

Japanese form of beech wood was more

subject to warping and inconsistencies

than European beech – understanding

its physical composition, behaviour and

processing techniques was a riddle that

had confounded previous generations.

The former carpenters therefore became

keen attendees at Research Institute

lectures and reciprocated by inviting their

technicians, engineers and designers – as

well as overseas experts – to visit the

Tendo Mokko factory.

Institute staff researched plywood glues,

bending and steaming processes, and

with their help, Tendo Mokko gradually

built a complete plywood production

system. By buying freshly-felled logs then

drying and processing them in-house

they could maximise quality control and

oversee the entire operation from raw

material to finished product.


pioneers of plywood ManufaCTuringBy setting out to build a local and

international knowledge network,

embed entrepreneurship, and develop

a deep technical understanding of

how to work with plywood, Tendo

Mokko were set to become one of the

pioneers of plywood furniture in Japan.

They began to focus on

manufacturing contract furniture,

having foreseen that as part of

Japan’s physical reconstruction and

democratisation many new civic

buildings would be built.

In another astute move, their leaders

persuaded Inui Saburo, a senior

plywood researcher at the Research

Institute, to become their head of

technology in 1959. He became integral

to the development of specialist

plywood presses, seeking information

from Danish experts and working

closely with Japanese press makers on

specifications and training initiatives.

Value of output-driven TenderingBy the 1960s, 90% of Tendo Mokko’s

market was contract rather than

domestic furniture. According to

Sugasawa Mitsumasa, an integral

member of the design team, this

stability and the government tendering

process gave them scope to be more

innovative and experimental.Their

remote location was another important

innovation driver – they felt they had

to “come up with something different”

and were fortunate in having the nearby

Research Institute to provide technical

and design support/inspiration.


design experiMenTaTion They made the business decision to

partner with Japan’s leading avant-

garde architects – also involved in the

contract market – making it easier to

experiment with plywood’s possibilities

and developing a unique market niche

for Tendo Mokko’s creativity.

Alongside fast-track innovation, they

also took a long-term view of research

and development. In many cases they

would be given a design that couldn’t

be made at the time, but with in-house

engineered technical advances in

plywood presses, it might then put it into

production 20 years later.

global design neTwork We tend to think of globalisation as

recent. But in the early twentieth century,

European and American designers

were travelling to Japan, and Japanese

designers to the West. In the 1930s, the

architect Bruno Taut was learning and

building personal networks in Japan.

As Tendo Mokko evolved towards making

cosmopolitan sculptural furniture during

the 1950s, they wisely tapped into these

high-end, international expert networks

which had begun re-forming after the war.

Through the Research Institute’s design

head, Tendo Mokko began to collaborate

with outstanding creatives from Tokyo,

including Tange Kenzo (soon to be at

Harvard) and ex-Le Corbusier architect

Sakakura Junzo.

They later sent one of their promising

young designers to the Danish Furniture

Research Institute, with a remit of learning

new skills, networking and bringing fresh

knowledge back to the factory.

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design for exporT MarkeTsDuring the 1950s the Japanese

government strongly encouraged

companies to seek export markets.

Eventually, this resulted in the opening of

a joint showroom office in San Francisco,

featuring high-end ‘flagship’ designs.

But before that, they made sure to show

the most stunning pieces at the Milan

Triennale – and as a result had work in

the permanent collection of the Museum

of Modern Art, New York by 1958.

Tendo Mokko today – Vision and longeviTyWhile Sarah Teasley’s research mainly

focuses on the formative years of Tendo

Mokko between 1945 and 1965, she

has recently brought their story up to

date, as part of exploring how Japanese

industrialists and others are continuing to

innovate today.

The past 20 years in Japan have been

haunted by economic stagnation,

driven by outsourcing to China, a

quickly ageing population and a difficult

financial climate, and worsened by the

2011 earthquake and tsunami.

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In the absence of bold, sustained action

from central and regional government,

there is an emerging sense among

companies and community groups that

they need to reinvent Japanese business

and cultural life. They are starting on a

small scale, asking:

• How can they capture imaginations

and channel this interest into active,

dynamic attempts to reinvigorate

communities?

• How can they spark local and regional

excitement about the future, and a

sense that ordinary people and SMEs

can have a positive impact, too?

• What does company-led social and

environmental sustainability look like,

for local and regional SMEs?

• Can local and regional SMEs with

a deep history of community

contribution find fresh energy by

revisiting what worked in the past?

Partly because other, more standard

measures have already been tried, the

approach is becoming more experimental.

In Tendo Mokko’s case, they have begun

exploring social innovation and co-design

around products that have a long life –

very explicitly involving everyone in the

company in the design and production

of new pieces, and creating product

narratives that involve the end user.

Several of the eleven founders’ children

and grandchildren are involved in

running the company today, and

while many of their competitors are

no longer in business, Tendo Mokko

have remained unusually successful

at understanding the market while

remaining true to their core design

vision, materials and product quality.

They remain Japan’s premier plywood

furniture manufacturer in terms of

technique and quality, keeping prices fairly

high and diversifying astutely, e.g. into

veneers for the luxury automobile sector.

They have maintained a long-term vision,

despite the economic climate being more

challenging than 20 years ago, and appear

to benefit from considerable goodwill

among current and former employees.

As a company, a hierarchical structure is

inevitable, but a sense of collaborative

work is present among all parts of the

design and manufacturing process.

One of the challenges Tendo Mokko

currently face is the need to operate

within a weakened industrial ecosystem

and supply chain. As an example, their

favourite plywood presses were built by

Japanese manufacturers in the 1950s

and 1960s, but many manufacturers have

folded, so replacement parts must be

hand sculpted or cast.

Despite this, Tendo Mokko still

experiment with press technologies,

and with the forms that they’re able

to make, building on the deep tacit

understanding of the technical limits

and possibilities of plywood that

underpins this innovative company.

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Best practice in materials and design Best practice in materials and design

lessons froM Tendo MokkoBuild knowledge• Seek out expertise and don’t be shy

about it.

• Voraciously consider bringing in new

technology, but also take advantage

of the older skills and methods that

you might have in your work force.

• Acknowledge your strengths and

acknowledge the strengths of others.

• Be aware of resources around you –

in Tendo Mokko’s case an abundant

supply of wood and the expertise of

the research institute.

• Be mindful of the importance of

access to researchers and research

institutes – whether at universities,

further education colleges, companies

in complementary industries or

regional research institutes.

• Encourage long-term thinking

on the part of government /

business research funders. Blue-

sky research has value in bringing

ideas and connections to industry

collaborations. “It’s nerve wracking,

but there is an economic impact”.

Look ahead• Look ahead and think about markets

that haven’t yet emerged, making

what your company and people are

good at your selling point.

• Diversify, but diversify strategically so

that your core image is clear.

Experiment• Maintain curiosity about materials

and the processes – encourage a

culture of experimentation and

questioning around materials and

business opportunities.

• Don’t be afraid to bring in young

designers and engineers with wild or

unconventional ideas, or to support

their development.

Collaborate• Cultivate and maintain connections

with other interesting people in

different fields, local and international.

Think about how you might be able to

collaborate with them.

Maintain internal culture• Pay strong attention to corporate

culture, employee culture and worker

satisfaction – especially if you are in

the manufacturing sector and founded

on craft skills as well as automation.

• Maintain trust, even in times

of uncertainty – allowing for

experimentation, giving people

the room to play over the long term,

and recognising that you may be

able to capitalise on that later on,

even if you’re not technically able

to do so immediately.

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Best practice in materials and design Best practice in materials and design

disClaiMerThis report forms part of the

deliverables from the InnoMatNet

project which has received funding from

the European Commission’s Seventh

Framework Programme FP7/2007-2013

under grant agreement n° 290583. The

report reflects only the author’s views

and the European Commission is not

liable for any use that might be made of

the content of this publication.

The project runs from the 1 April 2012

to 30 September 2014. It involves

eleven partners and is coordinated by

Sociedade Portuguesa de Inovação (SPI).

More information on the project can be

found at www.innomatnet.eu

The lead contractor for the case studies

was InnoMatNet consortium partner

the Institute of Materials, Minerals

and Mining, with delivery through

the Materials and Design Exchange

(MaDE), a group within the UK Materials

Knowledge Transfer Network.

www.iom3.org.uk

www.materialsktn.net/made

© innoMatnet 2013Images pp. 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 22-23 © Tendo Co., Ltd.

Image p17 © Yanagi Design Office. All Rights Reserved.

We are grateful to the following individuals and organisations for their contribution to the InnoMatNet case studies: sarah Teasley, Royal College of Art Tendo Mokko

Case study suggestions taken from the InnoMatNet survey. Reviewed by: Claire Claessen and John Conti-Ramsden, Chemistry Innovation KTNJohn bound, The Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining (MaDE, Materials KTN)

Research & editing: John bound, The Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining (MaDE, Materials KTN)

Graphic design: lara Collins, The Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining

aCknowledgeMenTs

Dr. Sarah Teasley’s research on Tendo Mokko was funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).

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Best practice in materials and design

ConTaCT

Tendo Co ltd

1-3-10 Midaregawa

Tendo City, Yamagata

T + 81 23 653 3121

[email protected]

www.tendo-mokko.co.jp

dr sarah Teasley

Reader in Design History and Theory

School of Humanities

Royal College of Art

Kensington Gore

London, SW7 2EU

[email protected]

T +44 (0) 20 7590 4444

www.rca.ac.uk

twitter.com/sarah_teasley

tendo

Documents

plywood materials

innovation tendo mokko

role of design

history of plywood furniture

manufacturing sarah

use of design

design researchers

todays design