Deerskin entrepreneurs launch brand in Japan
Entrepreneurs in the city of Nagano in central Japan have taken advantage of widely available deerskins to launch a new shop selling a wide range of accessories.
Akari Nagasaki, who runs a restaurant in the city, began putting venison on his menus when the meat became available. His enquiries revealed that deer were causing millions of dollars’ worth of damage to agricultural crops in the area and that, throughout Japan, the ministry of agriculture had culled 600,000 deer in fiscal year 2019, with many of the carcases and all of the skins going to waste.
He mentioned the waste of this material to his friends, Yu Wada, who works in the fashion industry, and Minako Wada, a leathergoods artisan.
They managed to source some tanned deerskins in Hyogo Prefecture, 500 kilometres away, and after raising money through crowdfunding, set up Inswirl, their own accessories brand.
They have set up an Inswirl shop and Minako Wada operates a workshop above it. She has expanded her range of deerskin products to 30, including handbags and wallets.
