The 6th floor sign has a stainless steel pipe wrapped around it. The company responsible for this is the Hirakawa Factory, whose employees are known for their skill with bending metal poles and pipes.

They often use stainless steel, brass and aluminum to make parts that are used in products for a variety of fields: medical equipment, kitchen goods, interior furniture, game devices etc.

The machine used by these craftsmen is called a “bender,” and it uses hydraulic power to bend the material.

This tool bends objects to perfectly match a set diameter and area. Hirakawa Factory is in possession of 1300 different metal molds.

The president of the company, Shigeyuki Yanagisawa, stated “there are only a few factories within Tokyo with this kind of selection, and this really is our company’s lifeline.”

Each mold costs about 400,000 to 500,000 yen, so they are ordered one by one and steadily increased over time. The more molds you have, the more techniques you have in your arsenal,the more people will want to order from you. That is why these molds are both an asset to the Hirakawa Factory and a weapon.

This piece uses parts made with 6 different kinds of molds, which were fastened together through welding techniques. This is the kind of technique that Ōta-ku is known for. The parts are passed between factories, processed, and transported to the next factory in a relay style fashion. Since the factories are so close together, it’s really convenient. Yanagisawa commented that he “sometimes even bikes over himself to take the part.”

“Since everyone is so interconnected, you make a reputation for yourself pretty easily. That’s why the good factories are so popular. I have even had to negotiate with one of the factories I work with quite frequently who said they had another job deadline coming up and asked me to wait *laughs*.”

Let’s look back at the 6th floor sign. This is all one pipe that is connected together. Just like the factories located in Ōta-ku all work together for one purpose, all of these parts come together into one object.

Okay, now it’s time to head onto the 5th floor sign. There, we will introduce the sophisticated manufacturing process of a polished metal finish.