[Miyagi Prefecture] Toyota Motor Corporation is working on new value creation! Can scrap car materials be turned into traditional crafts?

Toyota Motor Corporation is a leading company representing Japan.

Many Miyagi residents know that Toyota Motor Corporation has a huge factory in Ohira Village, from where cars made in Miyagi Prefecture are shipped all over Japan. Did you know that we have started an interesting initiative to transform traditional crafts into local crafts?

A new initiative named “geological design”

Toyota's in-house structural design studio is working on ``creating cars with nothing to throw away.''

Even as we reduce the use of resources such as steel and create structures that are easier to recycle, there are still materials that cannot be recycled into raw materials and materials for cars.

We create an upcycling system and make friends to add value to such materials and turn them into new products and works. The entire activity is named "Geological Design."

Steel from car scraps turned into knives

Ishikawa Knives Manufacturing Co., Ltd. in Kami-cho, Kami-gun, Miyagi Prefecture. Here, the ``Kurouchi Santoku Knife'' was made using scrap metal from automobiles.

Nakashinden Uchihamono, which was born in Kami Town, Kami District, Miyagi Prefecture (formerly Nakashinden Town), was created by knifesmiths from the Sendai clan who made sickles in Nakashinden during the Kanbun era (1661-1673) of the Edo period. It is said that Michio Ishikawa, the fourth generation of Ishikawa Knife Manufacturing Co., Ltd., who was in charge of the production, is the last blacksmith in Kami Town.

Ishikawa Knife Seisakusho's products are extremely popular overseas, and are sold at extremely high prices at five overseas distributors.

The ``Nakashinta Uchihamono Automobile Scrap Upcycled Knife'' produced this time is made of a completely different material from the steel originally used to make knives, so it was necessary to change the temperature and hammering force during the forging process. This is a work that was created after repeated prototyping for about a month and a half.

Ishikawa Knife Manufacturing <Information>

• Name: Ishikawa Knife Manufacturing Co., Ltd.
• Address: 20 Minami-cho, Kami-cho, Kami-gun, Miyagi Prefecture 981-4241
• Official URL: https://ruraljapantv.official.ec/

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Glass from automobile scraps is turned into glasses and other glass products.

Kaiba Glass Studio is located in Akiu-cho, Taihaku-ku, Sendai City. Founded in 1996 by Koji Murayama, the glass studio engages in a wide range of creative activities, including simple vessels, research into objects and lighting glass materials, and the planning, design, and production of various other objects.

Here, glass products such as glasses were manufactured using automobile waste glass (side glass).

Unlike traditional work production, which involves vitrifying natural objects such as sand and rocks, creating work using glass, an industrial material made with uniform quality standards, is a completely different process. I think so.

The ``automobile waste upcycled glass product'' created this time was created after about three months of repeated trial and error.

Kaiba Glass Studio <Information>

• Name: Kaiba Glass Studio
• Address: 23-1 Nagabukuro Tateyamahara, Akiu-cho, Taihaku-ku, Sendai-shi, Miyagi 982-0243
• Official URL: https://kaiba.org/

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summary

A new initiative to transform industrial products into traditional crafts.

According to a comment from Toyota Motor Corporation Structural Design Studio Theme Producer Koichi Daigaku, in the future, they are considering realizing local production and local consumption of automobile waste materials using automobile waste materials generated by Toyota Motor East Japan Co., Ltd., which has a production base in Miyagi Prefecture. It seems that there are.

It seems that the above two products are being considered for general release in the future, so if you are interested, please follow us for information!