Hudson Shoe Store: Focusing on shoes and repairing them as if they were being made

Manufacturing
Creating things
Craftsman's Landscape

This issue's site
[Occupation] Shoemaker
[Craftsman name] Rui Murakami, Hudson Shoe Store
[Location] Kanagawa Ward, Yokohama

Carefully, slowly, and with thought.
A section introducing manufacturing sites that make use of handcrafted techniques.
This time, we received a product that cannot be repaired at other stores around the world.
The rejected shoes are collected.
It can be said to be the savior of the shoe world.
Shoe repair shop "Hudson Shoe Store".

Seven years ago, Murakami-san became the second generation owner of Hudson Shoe Shop, inheriting the passion of his predecessor, who was said to be the last handmade shoemaker in Yokohama. On the shelves in the workshop, shoes are lined up waiting for repair, and around them are many shoe tools, such as leather knives and crocodiles, that are not ready for use. While watching his predecessor's movements and stealing his techniques, Murakami-san learned most of the fine repair techniques on his own. "I sharpen my own leather knives, and I also make my own needles and threads to match the shoes," he says. "Because it is important to listen sympathetically to the customer's thoughts and requests about their shoes, we decide to hold pre-meetings until the customer is satisfied," and the Hudson way is to spend as much time on this as possible. "A shoe repair shop with many meetings"... The love poured into shoes is endless.

"In a niche location in Yokohama," says Murakami, "Hudson Shoe Store" is located in a corner of Matsumoto 3-chome Shopping Arcade, a five-minute walk from Tanmachi Station on the Tokyu Toyoko Line. This year marks 56 years since the previous owner, Masatoshi Sato, who made shoes for many famous people, including former Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida, opened his shop here in 1961. "It seems that even the people in the shuttered shopping arcade had no idea that there was such an amazing shoemaker in this location. They never imagined that there was someone here who made shoes for the Japanese Prime Minister." After the previous owner passed away, Hudson Shoe Store was closed for about a year, but Murakami took over seven years ago.

As mentioned at the beginning, shoes that have been rejected from all over the country are collected here. Shoes that have been refused repairs due to their complexity are brought to the store through word of mouth and the Internet by shoe repair franchises, which are on the rise in the city. Murakami's reputation as a shoemaker seems to be spreading overseas, and recently a pair of shoes was sent from Belgium across the sea.

Shoe repairs at Hudson Shoe Store begin with a lengthy reception process. It takes two to three hours for one pair of shoes, especially for first-time customers. "Of course, we need to be skilled, but since customers have taken the trouble to look us up on the internet and found us, we feel it's only natural that we provide a personal repair service. At first, some people around us were worried that we were wasting our time and that we would reduce our earnings (laughs). But we decided to spend as much time as possible on reception until the customer was satisfied. Once they have gained our trust, the time we spend on reception will gradually decrease from the next time onwards."

Murakami is self-taught in repair. Of course, his skills are based on what he learned from his predecessor and the experience he gained from working his way up through the ranks, but when he faces the shoes of the day, a once-in-a-lifetime relationship is born between the craftsman and the shoes.

"My approach is to repair shoes as if they were being made. I think of it as a 'remake' rather than a 'repair'." With the shoes to be remade in front of him, this is where the 'dialogue with the shoes' begins. In front of him are shoes that other shops had given up on and brought in. What is the best way to remake these? What materials to use, what tools to use, what steps to take... he says he spends a lot of time gazing at the shoes.

For example, here are some leather sandals that I was just about to start working on at the time of the interview.

He looks at the sandals for a while, picks them up, places them on the workbench and looks at them again, then looks at his tools, and there is silence... And finally he decides how to repair them.

"The outside of these sandals is leather, but the inside is rubber. So even if you make a hole with a regular awl, the rubber will close up right away. I was worried about how to solve that problem," he said. Even though he could see the way forward, he said he would continue to test and try again from here, checking the condition of the shoes as he went.

Murakami-san says that he doesn't accept any orders. "I don't want to repair shoes to the point that it destroys their atmosphere. I'm originally a manufacturer, so I know how many craftsmen have made those shoes and what their feelings are, so I can't do a quick fix. When I really can't accept a request, I'm sorry, but I have to decline." I think that's the attitude he takes because he takes shoes seriously.

If you have been to Hudson Shoe Store, you will have noticed the beauty of the tools that Murakami uses, such as this leather knife.

"For a craftsman, tools are his life. I actually visited a sharpener in Asakusa and learned how to sharpen the tools using a whetstone, and I sharpen the blades myself before using them. It is said that a shoemaker's career does not begin until he is able to properly sharpen his own leather knives. That kind of foundation is important for shoe repair."

Murakami also uses needles and thread that he has customized himself to match the shoes he is repairing.

A tool box used by the previous generation.

The machines that were used by our predecessor are still in good working order.

When I asked Murakami about his future plans, he replied, "Next year, I will open a made-to-order shoe store in an apartment building about 200 to 300 meters away from this store. I plan to prepare about 72 pairs of shoes by pattern order." The shoe brand logo has already been decided.

"Now that I've become a shoemaker and taken over this store, I've realized even more that Japanese craftsmen in the past really risked their lives to do their work. As a craftsman, I want to work carefully so that customers will recognize me as a 'professional among professionals,'" says Murakami. The neatly maintained tools, the large machines waiting to be put to use, and above all, Murakami's rosin-stained hands tell the story of his love for shoes.