Tomoya Sawada
Co-founder / CEO
Representative of The House of Craftsmen and Co. After graduating from the International Economics Department at Ritsumeikan University, Tomoya joined the sales division at a major pharmaceutical company. He left the position to start an in-home care service company, Fukurou, in Shiga prefecture. In 2017, his company acquired the day-service provider Soleil to expand business. While planning expansions into new fields including employment support and guesthouses, he was inspired by the philosophy of William Morris and decided to found The House of Craftsmen and Co. His favorite hobby is milling coffee beans.
Yuuki Shigemoto
Co-founder / Design Manager
Lecturer in Marketing at Toyama University of International Studies in Japan. Yuuki completed his PhD in Engineering, specialising in design management, at the University of Cambridge in 2018. He has an extensive educational and research background in design science, engineering, marketing, innovation studies, sociology and anthropology that may together foster an advanced interdisciplinary insight for bringing about design-driven innovation that aims to transform the meaning of products that people cannot help but fall in love with. His hobbies include design, badminton, rowing, cooking, and travel.
Ryo Ichikawa
Secretary
4th year student at the Department of Architecture, Kyoto University. While studying engineering for earth-quake resistant buildings, Ryo traveled across Japan restoring historic homes. He teaches young people about DIY and self renovation and is a proponent of woodcraft. As the student representative of the historic home restoration project "The Straw House," he successfully raised the goal amount via crowdfunding. He is currently working on his startup project, a mixed share-house and rural cafe. He plans to start graduate school at Kyoto University in 2018, and his hobbies are mountain climbing and cycling.
Ami Shirahama
Designer
1st year graduate student at Business Management Department, Ritsumeikan University, to which Ami entered early from her undergraduate program in Management. While working towards her MBA in marketing with focus on customer experience, She is also studying graphic design at the design school. Her interest is in "What is happiness?" and she studied abroad in Sweden for a year. Her hobbies include design, racket sports, sleep, and changing environments.
Koki Sonoda
Photographer
A traveling photographer. Traveled across Japan for four years with nothing but a backpack, looking through his viewfinder at whatever captured his imagination. While Koki is sometimes seen selling photographs on the street or at events, he is mostly nowhere to be found. He does not have a contract with mobile phone carriers and is entirely reliant on free wifi; even the members of The House of Craftsmen and Co. sometimes have difficulty getting a hold of him. His hobby is to learn new things.