In January 2011, I was 48 years old.

I quit my job at the end of 2010 and restarted my life without thinking about my next job.

Every morning as I brushed my teeth, I wondered what "I was going to do with my life...” My anxiety outweighed my hope.

On March 11, as spring was approaching, I was chatting with the owner of a vegetable stand in Koyasu-district after going to Sajima fishing port to buy fish.

At that moment, the ground shook for a long time.

I wondered where the epicenter was,” he said, turning on the radio of his light truck parked nearby.

It was the Great East Japan Earthquake, the epicenter of which was in the northernmost six prefectures of Honshu region.

When I was a company employee, I often went to various places in Japan on longstay assignments.

One of those assignments was a about month-long stay in Ofunato, Iwate Prefecture, where I made many friends among the locals.

We continued to correspond with each other by letter and e-mail, and i went to trip sometime.

The huge earthquake hit the area of these friends.

When I finally got in touch with my friends in Ofunato City,I thought to myself, “Was I being guided by god, being unemployed at this point in my life?”

While job hunting for a year, I delivered relief supplies to Ofunato City and Rikuzentakata city many times with the help of my local friends.

In Ofunato City, there were a sushi restaurant who had helped me during an extended stay there when I was an office worker.

The owner there had lost his restaurant to the tsunami, but was planning to reopen it on his own in the fall.

When I heard about this, I asked my local friends for some ideas for a gift for the opening of the restaurant.

my local friends said, “If it's Sushi restaurants are their noren (curtains),” he said.

“Noren is best of indigo-dyed,” he said.

“Okay, let's go with that.”

“By the way, what is indigo dyeing? Who dyes it?"

"You're the one who started idea. go dye it."

It was the moment when I, who did not know dyeing, started indigo dyeing.

I searched the Internet for indigo dyeing methods and dyes, and finally arrived at a dyestuff shop in Kyoto, After a lecture over the phone, I purchased the dye.

We started indigo dyeing for the first time in a small washbasin-like container and completed an indigo-dyed fabric the size of a noren (a traditional Japanese curtain).

Next, I asked a local friend to sew the indigo-dyed fabric with a sewing machine, after lending me a sample curtain from a small restaurant in the neighborhood.

The noren turned out better than we had expected, and we gave the noren to the sushi restaurant when we delivered the relief supplies.

The owner of the sushi restaurant took down the brand-new noren she had prepared and hung up ours, saying, “Oh, how nice! She said, “Oh, it's so nice!

When we went to show the finished noren to the small restaurant that had lent us a sample before we delivered it to the sushi restaurant in Ofunato City, she said, “good job, make a noren for our restaurant, too.

I had never used a sewing machine, but I wanted to refrain from asking my friends.

But now that I am unemployed, I can't find a good reason to say no... I'll sew it myself.

I took a sewing class, and bought a household sewing machine just when I thought I was “good enough.

I dyed the fabric indigo dye, looked up how to use a sewing machine on the Internet, and began to make the curtain for the small restaurant.

I sewing machine work almost own way,I finished made shop curtain, I felt relieved that I had fulfilled my duty.

After that, I continued to practice using the sewing machine in my own way, searching for instructions on how to use it on the Internet, and became able to make kinchaku (a thin kimono) out of indigo-dyed fabric.

In those days, I was making only kinchaku, or rather, I could only make kinchaku.

During those times, there is a word that has been the driving force for me to continue this work.

Someone once told me, “Keep on doing what you started, and if you keep on doing it, someone will always be watching.

I was spending my days with that kinchaku as my wallet when one day I received a request to make a kinchaku.

But there was no profit not there yet.

While spending such days, someone who saw the kinchaku asked me to make a small bag of indigo-dyed fabric with a handle attached, so I looked up how to make bags on the Internet, and started making bags, again in my own way.

Little by little, the number of things I could make increased, and the dyeing process and sewing machine became more and more interesting.

Now he has more sewing machines, and in addition to dyeing fabrics, he also purchases clothes and dyes them with indigo.

Recently, I have also taken up the challenge of sewing clothes.

This is my present situation since I started indigo dyeing and sewing.

At the age of 48, I entered the world of “dyeing” and “sewing machines” knowing neither right nor left, but this has become my current occupation.

The Great East Japan Earthquake was the trigger that got me started with indigo dyeing and sewing machines, and I believe that I am making progress little by little, even though I am still lost in the world with the words, “Keep on doing what you started, and if you keep on doing it, someone will always be watching".

Whatever the trigger, I was guided by something, blessed with friends, and nurtured by them.

I am grateful to all my friends.

Thank you so much.

 

Sorry for my poor English.

indigo55 Toshiaki Nomura