Suminoe Textile Co., Ltd.

Our founder, Denshichi Murata, who was honest, persistent and extremely studious

Denshichi Murata was born in 1848 as the seventh son of Denbei Murata, in the Town of Sawa, Higashinari-gun, Osaka Prefecture. Denshichi grew up to be a rice dealer who ran a store named “Komeden.” At that time, hand-woven carpets called “Sakai Dantsu” were widely manufactured, as a side business, in the area from Sakai to Osaka Sumiyoshi, as export items to the United States.

Motivated by this situation, Denshichi Murata purchased three looms and began to manufacture carpets while running a rice store. He started manufacturing carpets at the Murata Factory, which became the origin of Suminoe Textile. Our founder, Denshichi Murata, was a trustworthy, warmhearted and hard-working person who persistently stuck to manufacturing of high quality products. The Murata Factory made remarkable progress in its carpet-weaving techniques, and he eventually closed his rice business so as to concentrate solely on manufacturing carpets.

Suminoe Textile’s first “intellectual property”

In 1890, Denshichi Murata, who was a highly studious craftsman, manufactured the first Wilton-style carpet made in Japan. In 1892, he received a patent for the carpet weaving, which was named “Yamato-ori.”

Japan National Railways

In March 1870, the Japanese government launched its first railway project. The first trains featured three classes: upper, intermediate and lower. The upper and intermediate passenger cars used imported moquette as fabric for the seat covers. The Japanese government subsequently asked Takashimaya to supply Japan-made moquette for the seats, and our Company received an order from Takashimaya to manufacture the seat covers. In 1896, we succeeded in producing hand-woven moquette as a seat covering for the first time in Japan. This domestic moquette was adopted by Japan National Railways for their seat coverings in 1899.

Establishment of Suminoe Textile Joint-Stock Company

In response to the needs of the new era, momentum accelerated for conversion from a private operation to incorporation as a company. This led to the establishment of Suminoe Textile Joint-Stock Company in 1913, which was jointly invested by the Murata family and the Iida family of Takashimaya. The Company’s establishment marked the first step in the 100-year history of Suminoe Textile as a corporate body. Denshichi Murata was appointed as the first President, and Isao Mashiko, who later became the second President, was elected as Manager.

Imperial Theatre

In 1915, the Company delivered seat coverings to the Imperial Theatre. Suminoe Textile’s seat coverings were also adopted when the Imperial Theatre underwent extensive renovation in 1966. In this prestigious entertainment theatre, which is known to many Japanese people by its nickname “Teigeki,” our highly comfortable seat coverings have helped audiences enjoy stage performances over many years.

Special procurement demand from the Occupation Forces

In the wake of the defeat in World War II, Japan’s carpet industry was in a state of suspended animation, with looms and weaving machines gathering dust. The regeneration of the industry was triggered in February 1946 by the great number of orders that Suminoe Textile received from the Occupation Forces, to procure textile products for American soldiers’ barracks, billets, and their family housing. An unprecedentedly high demand for carpets and moquette was generated, forcing us to work day and night to manufacture these products at full capacity. Since the orders were too large to be fulfilled by our Company alone, we called for help from the nation’s entire carpet industry, which worked together with us to complete these orders. Although there were some bitter incidents, including confrontations with U.S. officers about delivery times, this “special procurement demand” brought hope for the postwar reconstruction of Japan’s carpet industry.

Introduction of a tufting carpet machine

In 1954, the Company imported from the United States a tufting carpet machine capable of mass production for the first time in Japan. The carpets mass-produced by such machines are collectively called “tufted carpets.”

“Tafton” carpets released on the market

In 1957, a new carpet called “Tafton” is released. Under the concept “a carpet that can be purchased by an average section-chief-level company worker using a bonus,” the retail price for a four-and-a-half tatami mat-sized carpet was set at 9,900 yen at that time. This marked a turning point in carpet production, from conventional custom-made manufacturing to ready-made production.

When the Company released “Tafton,” its advertisements enjoyed widespread popularity. Tafton became a topic of conversation among Japanese as an innovative product that could transform their lifestyles. As a result, carpets, which had been high-end products until then, came to be widely used by ordinary households all of a sudden.

Supplying a hand-woven carpet to an Imperial Palace building newly constructed in the Showa Period

The Homeiden, newly created in the Showa Period, is one of the Imperial Palace buildings, and is used to hold major banquets. This banquet hall is the largest of all the palace halls. The Homeiden building consists of only one room, making it the most spacious room in the Imperial Palace. In 1968, Suminoe Textile provided for this hall a gorgeous and dignified hand-woven carpet with a design based on a painting by Yasushi Sugiyama, a distinguished Japanese-style painter. Featuring grass patterns designed by him, this Chinese-style dantsu carpet is laid on the hall’s floor, covering an area of about 540 tatami mats (22×38m/836㎡). To manufacture a carpet that could cover such a large floor space, we had to join together three carpets about 7m wide and 37m long. The manufacturing process was very extensive, requiring a total of 10,000 weavers, who spent as long as nine months knotting 65 million tufts by hand, to complete this masterpiece carpet.

Japan’s first carpet tiles

In 1980, the Nara Factory began production of Japan’s first carpet tiles. By laying equal-sized squares of carpet like tiles, colorful mosaic patterns can be formed. It is also easy to replace the damaged carpet tiles with new ones. With these advantages, our carpet tiles attracted much attention as an innovative product. Today, one of our key products is “ECOS^®,” the world’s premier eco carpet tiles, which are made from up to 84% recycled materials and feature a carbon footprint reduction of up to 43% compared to our conventional products.

Global network for our automobile textiles business

After establishing a subsidy that produce automotive textiles in Thailand in 1994, Suminoe Textile expanded its global business network by setting up manufacturing and sales sites in the United States, China, Indonesia, India and Mexico. At present, in the automobile textiles segment, overseas sales account for roughly half of total sales. In the future, we will continue to aggressively promote expansion overseas, aiming for the creation of a globally optimized supply system.

Development of ECOS^®, eco-friendly carpet tiles under the horizontal recycling system

Old carpet tiles used in offices have conventionally been disposed of mostly in landfills. To address this problem, in 2011 Suminoe Textile released ECOS^®, eco-friendly carpet tiles series under the horizontal recycling system, which reduces waste and circulates resources at an unprecedented level. ECOS^® has achieved a recycled material ratio of up to 84% by using SUMITRON^®, continuous fiber made from recycled PET bottles, in the surface pile material, and by mixing recycled powder from used carpet tiles collected from the market with the backing material. ECOS^® became the first product in the carpet industry to obtain Eco Mark certification under the new certification criteria. We are proud to say that ECOS^® is Suminoe Textile’s proprietary product developed under the concept “Resources for the Future.”