KANEKO OPTICAL: its work and people

We are on the outskirts of Sabae City in Fukui Prefecture. Birches and beech trees are visible through the workshop's large windows. In summer they spread a dappled light green light; in winter they form an elegant row, their branches covered with snow. "In spring, green shoots begin to appear. Nature's budding is really beautiful, and it's very soothing to work here," the craftsman quietly comments in the retreat-like space he has built himself, named simply "Studio Ido." This is where Tamio Ido, metal frame craftsman and longtime face of KANEKO OPTICAL's flagship brand, the "CRAFTSMAN SERIES," practices his trade.

Ido's eyeglass making skills have proclaimed his name throughout Japan. "I'm a poor speaker," Ido shyly says, elaborating no further. But in the eyeglass industry everyone knows that for metal frames, especially those made of "sun platinum," Ido is an unrivaled craftsman. Long used as a metal material, the alloy known as sun platinum contains a large percentage of chrome, making it resistant to corrosion. If polished many times longer than required for standard metal, sun platinum finally yields a brilliance which even platinum cannot surpass. However the difficulty of the techniques needed to polish and work sun platinum limits the craftsman able to use the material. This has led to its slow disappearance in recent years. Nevertheless, Ido's beautifully crafted sun-platinum frames have attracted many fans, and demand from all parts of the country seems unquenchable. He knows the material better than anyone, and although he insists on making almost all components himself, he has produced countless works. He is a modern master of his craft, undeniably irreplaceable.

IDO was born in the Kawada district of Sabae City, Fukui Prefecture, where he works today. Eyeglass manufacturing in Sabae had begun about 100 years ago as off-season work for farmers. At home, his much older eldest brother and father hunched as they quietly applied themselves to eyeglass making in a workspace behind the house, with Ido often watching and sometimes helping. His father Hisaaki IDO was in the first generation of those who learned eyeglass-making knowhow from their Meiji-era predecessors. Hisaaki was also in a position to hire groups of young men from the provinces, who lived in his house as they learned eyeglass-making techniques. 

The IDO family business was also at capacity, although still at a stage where no special adjustments or even packaging were provided, still glasses continuously flew out the door as soon as a wholesaler visited. At the time, helping out with the family business was a given and so, like his father and older brother, IDO too chose the path of the eyeglass maker. "There wasn't any other choice. To be honest I never once thought making eyeglasses was something difficult, because I'd watched my father at work since I was little. I took up this job in earnest during my teens, and I think I was about 28 when I started making complete eyeglasses." Having lived through that era, IDO today has in his workshop more than 20 machines used to manufacture eyeglasses. He has carefully maintained several presses passed down from his father. Other than a few old timers, almost no one knows how to adjust these machines. He even has tools he made himself to reproduce forgotten manual techniques in the manufacturing process. IDO has a clear image in mind of what he wants to do, and brings to bear this variety of machines, big and small, to shape it to completion. His easy mastery arises directly from that upbringing, watching his father and brother, whose steady dedication helped lay the foundation of eyeglass making in Sabae. 

IDO's workplace, "Studio Ido," is the castle he built himself after hours while continuing his day job. More than 30 years ago Ido hired a carpenter to build only the frame, then with his wife's helped worked on the rest a little at a time, completing it two years later. "This building is my masterpiece with my wife (laughs). Everything I learned about carpentry is self-taught. I'm amazed I was able to do it. The materials were all things I picked up here and there for free. I got window frames from my Dad, and for flooring I got material the elementary school had purchased long ago, and that kind of thing. My father didn't just make eyeglasses - anything he could do himself, he did, and I grew up seeing that. So nothing bothered me about building my own workplace. So long as I can still make the things I want, the flower is in bloom, right?" IDO loves mountain climbing, and once belonged to a mountaineering club; his mountain hut-like studio fits him well. IDO overlapped 15cm (6") clapboards on the exterior; inside there are bits green throughout on stands and tables he made himself, as well as the tools, creating a room that's well harmonized with the trees seen through the windows. His words,"the worst thing of all is to be half-done or out of balance" intimate the confident skill that pervades his eyeglass making work. 

Eyeglass maker, mountain climber, carpenter. To IDO, his work, hobbies, and life are so closely interwoven that the loss of any one of them would throw him off balance. "Good work comes from a good environment (workspace). Because I have work, I can take time off and climb mountains. When I go to the mountains my stress lifts, I forget my bad thoughts, and I can work hard the next day. That's what life is. Descending the mountain, I come back to reality a little at a time. As I descend I'm always thinking, 'Tomorrow I will give it my all...' That's why I climb." At age 73, IDO says his body is beginning to complain, but he persists in his work, knowing that "as long as I can still make what I want, the flower is still in bloom."


PROFILE

Tamio IDO / Tamio IDO

Born in Sabae City, Fukui Prefecture as the third son of an eyeglass-making family with a small factory in the Kawada district. With the family business in full swing during the Japanese economic miracle, IDO inevitably chose the CRAFTSMAN path. In 1964, at age 16, he joined the family factory, apprenticing to his father Hisaaki. He continuously honed his skills, becoming a top metal frame craftsman. His technical skill today is unrivaled, especially in the area of sun platinum frames, which require highly refined machining techniques.