Fude Japan (Makeup brushes from Japan)

Maybe you have heard about it.  

Japan has entered a new era called Reiwa 令和 with the new Emperor from May 1.

The eras are 
Meiji – Taisho – Showa – Heisei – Reiwa after the Samurai (Edo) period was over in 1867.

We had Showa for 63 years and Heisei for 31 years.
Japan had the war in Showa and big earthquake/tsunami in Heisei. So we wish Reiwa to be an era of peace. 

Reiwa’s wa is 和. Peace is 平和. This 和（wa) means ‘harmony’

There is a bit of difficulty, though. 

If I am told that someone was born in the 50th year of Showa, I need to add the years of Showa, Heisei  and Reiwa. It is not simple even for Japanese. So we usually convert the year from Showa 50th to 1975, e.g.

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I was chatting with Kyureido today. 

I was informed that 
there would be no more logo of 極 and fine kalla. (Please see the picture)

I asked them the reason, they say Japanese consumers like a handle with no logo brush. Well, I told them that many of my clients liked Kanji 極, but the decision seemed to be made….

 Brush companies should be attentive to foreign clients, And I think it important for me to tell them what you like ))

I saw a question of what kind of hair a particular brush had. It was about Takeda. 

Some companies make it clear  by naming their brushes after brushes’ hair.

Chikuhodo Z series are made with grey squirrel. T series are with goat saikoho.  Hakuhodo says G series are mainly made with grey squirrel and goat though they call them ‘blue’ squirrel.’

Hakuhodo naming is simple. It is easy except that many G series have no number on handles.  I  sometimes spend time on figuring out brushes’ numbers before sending them out. A shop says people touch and try at counter so they don’t care about numbers. Not good for me…

Takeda naming always puzzles me. So I asked a shop how they name it. They didn’t know… but promised to get back to me. 

They inserted a memo into a package sent to me::

For example,
16RSEPSQU(W) in the picture above.

16  is the length of a ferrule 16cm.
RS is a round style.
EP is European dressed Pine squirrel. (European dressed makes hair more straight while Nippon (Japan )dressed is not :NP)

SQU is a squirrel and W is white top.

Others  are:
WF is Tsubaki 椿 seires 
OV is oval
SOV is super oval. 
D is dense
EXS is extra saikoho 

If these make sense to you, great. I did not pay much attention so I preferred simple naming like Chikuhodo and Hakuhodo. 

On the contrary, Koyomo makes its product lines small. I guess they sell very few but expensive products in a similar strategy  to MAC (computer ) . Chikuhodo may be the same, but they make many limited brushes. 

I know many of you are more knowledgeable than I, 
but please let me know if you have a question if any, whether it is related to brushes or makeup. 
It will be good for me to know more!

Trains are crowded in April, when a new fiscal year starts.

Companies give training to new employees in Tokyo before they send them to local cities, so trains and subway are more crowded than usual.  Crowded trains make me think the Japanese school system)

In Japan, kids are taught to study, and go to good schools and work for big companies  (I am generalizing this for this discussion. There are many different ideas)

So good life for kids to be ‘happy’ is  to study hard, go to good high schools and enter prestigious universities. Then work for big companies. Prestigious universities include Tokyo, Kyoto, Keio, Waseda etc. Big companies are Mitsubishi, Mitsui, Toyota, etc. 

This is still what many parents believe in. Kids may be different. 

What do I think of this idea ?

I don’t like it at all, LOL. There are many ways to be ‘happy. ‘ They can work for a favorite thing. They can create own companies. They can pursue own interests. Maybe they can be major league baseball players to earn more than $400 million))

Besides, you can challenge things in Japan. Even if you failed, you could survive and ‘live’ in Japan. (Japan is a safe country relatively, as you may know and the welfare system also assures ‘life ‘) 
So you can challenge and pursue a different life with a reasonable insurance.

Having said that,  I think  you can take advantage of the Japanese school system. 

It is an insurance. 

I know some Tokyo University grads. They say if people study for three years very hard,  they can enter Tokyo University. I believe it is true. If you have a Tokyo Uni diploma, you can use it as an insurance to get a job and wait till you find your ‘dream’ job.  Or you can have a reasonable job that may not be a perfect job, but assures a reasonable life. 

Three years might be long for a16-year old kid who wants to have social life, but still  be good investment that will pay off.   You get a long term insurance.

It is difficult. (  I was not able to do that ! No patience for three years.)  That is what companies value when recruiting students. Patience and  persistence.

I mean :
there are many intelligent students who,  if they study,  are very difficult to beat. But they might not study and do something else. So other students who may be ‘average or less’ have chances.  Even I had a chance  as an ‘average’ student but with no patience! 

Speaking of Ichiro, a baseball player who retired this year at the age of 45. He practiced baseball for 364 days a year as an elementary school student. Only one day rest ))  It is far more difficult to be a great baseball player than to study for three years.

Again, I was not able to do so. My high school years were not productive and not challenging. So I have a respect for students who continued one thing for three years.

Whether they managed to take an advance of the system or not, they are now commuting on the subway.  Crowded subway.  With me)  It is a spring and I usually revisit this thought) 

Last week, I went to Isetan that had a makeup event most of makeup companies participated in. They performed makeup shows and sold items only for this event.

I had a chance to talk to the SUQQU makeup artist who is always on instagram, though I had a more interesting ‘event.’

Abruptly, I was called by a shop employee I had known and asked  if I speak English. And how she could improve her English.  Of course, there are many ways to study English, but I told her  I was into watching the same movie again and again, and remembering conversations.  I also told her she could meet many foreign shoppers at Isetan. 

She now has a friend from Ireland, and is getting interested in foreign countries. 

That is good) 

Well, in Japan, I have this impression that women are more interested in foreign cultures and languages than men. Generally, women speak English better than men, too.

And she said she was interested in meeting foreign men. and asked me to introduce if I knew anyone.   She was very straightforward , and surprised me. I like it!

In Japan, there is a word of ‘Konkatsu,’ which means the activity to get married. And this ‘konkatsu’ market is getting big, as more and more people don’t get married or get married late.

And Konkatsu gets difficult because people have very specific or sometimes too many desires. It is said that women want to marry a man who is nice looking (Ikemen), tall and earning well.   e.g. $ 70,000 annual salary.  Average salary in Tokyo is $60,000  and $40,000 on an all-Japan basis.  So maybe the first step would be to move to Tokyo)  Moreover,  $70,000 in their early thirties is only earned in big companies e.g. trading firms and banks.  Maybe less than 10%,

So what do they do ?

There are many marriage consultants, who introduce single people.  

Omiai (formal introduction) used to be a typical way of meeting for a marriage but not these days. In Omiai, there are matchmakers who want to take care of single people in each community or village. And they talk and arrange a meeting between people who don’t know. Actually my parents met through an Omiai. My mother told me that  a 70years old lady arranged a meeting for her.

Many Omiai marriages a few decades ago.

Now Konkatsu instead of Omiai.

About the shop lady. 
I have a friend from Taiwan and he is interested) 
Will see how it goes.

Thank you for reading) 

Toshiya