狄亞龍株式會社

Why are we so committed to tatami mats?

It’s because they are the closest thing to us in a room—the floor.
We walk on it, sit on it, lay on it; it’s in contact with our bodies, our hands; our children play on it, we fold laundry on it, and sometimes babies might even lick it. The floor plays an intimate role in our lives, and we want to cherish that role.

Floors in Japan have a unique cultural character—they are made from tatami mats.
Japanese culture has thrived for over a thousand years, and tatami mats are one aspect of that culture that we wish to pass down.

So in that case, wouldn’t the tatami mats we’ve had up to now suffice?

The foundation of Japanese culture—clothing, cuisine, living spaces—is changing dramatically.
Japanese cuisine has even been certified as a World Cultural Heritage.
Why has Japanese cuisine caught on so widely around the world?
That’s likely because Japanese culture has respected tradition while it continuously evolves.

The living space is also undergoing dramatic changes.
Dwellings are evolving from drafty houses made of wood and paper to highly air tight and insulated homes.
As thermal insulation efficiency increases and earthquake-resistance remains a necessity for structures in Japan, the conventional role the floor has played is growing ever distant.

We have reached a point in time where even the tatami, which has a proud history spanning over a thousand years, must boldly evolve.
For our generation and the next, it is our mission to provide the best response to keep the Japanese tradition of the tatami floor alive.
We vow to work with the tatami craftspeople, who have preserved Japan’s proud tatami culture, to overturn that tradition and escape from entrenched beliefs, and continue to make tatami for the next thousand years.

CEO Hidenori Igarashi