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November 2024

I’ve just come back from an amazing holiday in Japan. This was a totally new experience for me and my family, and the country simply took our breath away. Experiencing the shrines and temples, architecture, food, culture and countryside for the first time was like being transported into a dream.

The thing that impressed me most about our trip was the helpfulness, respect and most of all, attention to detail which was apparent in everyone we met. In Japan everyone forms orderly queues, there is no road rage, not a single dented car, no litter, and everything from a vending machine to a high-speed train works unfailingly with precision and grace.

Despite this wonderful break I didn’t entirely switch off from model making and managed to squeeze in a trip to the head offices of Tamiya the world-famous model kit company. This huge store was more like a museum to the art of model making than a shop, and as well as stocking up on precision tools, I learned a new Japanese concept.

The Tamiya company talks about the term ‘monozukuri’ (ものづくり), which can literally mean manufacturing or mass production, but it also has a more nuanced meaning which seems to go in several directions at once, encompassing the simple duplication of a design, through to the art and craft of construction and the joy of making something with your hands.

I love the thoughtfulness of this new word, and the closest English translation may be craftmanship, but I have learned that monozukuri refers more to the process of the object being made than the maker. Craftsmanship appears to emphasise the artisan, rather than the artefact. This seems to fall very much in line with the Japanese ethos of the value in community and communal living, rather than the ego. Something to bring home, I think!