Maruni

Japan is a nation that has for many centuries cultivated traditions based on wood, from building structures such as Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines through to private dwellings and the tools used in everyday life.

Takeo Yamanaka, Maruni's founder, spent his early years at Miyajima in Hiroshima Prefecture - a place with a rich heritage of traditional crafts based on the use of wood. He went on to study mechanical engineering and after graduating he established the Yamanaka Research Institute together with five other crafts specialists. This marked the starting point for Maruni Wood Industry.

The precursor of Maruni Wood Industry was Showa Mageki Kojo (Showa Bentwood Factory). Founded in 1928, this company developed a technique of bentwood working that was considered extremely difficult at the time. The name of the company was changed to Maruni Wood Industry, Inc. in 1933, after which the company set about achieving the industrial application of crafts skills in distinction to traditional Japanese methods of furniture production, which had remained until then firmly rooted in the field of the handicrafts.