Toyooka's bag industry has its origins in the willow craft of the Nara Period (710-794).
For a thousand years, countless numbers of makers have honed their skills and inherited the traditions of the region.
To carry the maker's spirit into the future, all of us in the entire production region are engaged in developing the skills of bag artisans.
With the aim of nurturing the diversity of Toyooka bags and Toyooka's depth as a production region, this professional training college cultivates experts in bag-making.
Young, motivated people from all over Japan come here to engage with bags every day.
By making more than twenty bags over the course of a year, the students acquire the imagination to create their own designs, the knowledge and skills to give shape to those designs, and the business sense to make them work as commercial products.
A single bag is made up of many different parts, including handles, pockets, gussets, and bases.
The skills required differ according to the material used, such as leather and canvas, requiring different sewing machines and various other adjustments.
No matter how much the process is streamlined and mechanized, ultimately, it is people who make bags.
This four-month short intensive course specializes in sewing skills, something that is difficult to acquire.
Bag Sewist Training Center Website
