The TATAMO! Project seeks to develop and sell new tatami made from material produced only in Japan. The project started with a unique collaboration between soft rush straw farmers, tatami craftsmen and designers to create new tatami products using soft rush that would usually be discarded in traditional tatami production for being too short. "TATAMO! floor", a tatami product that is used for flooring and wall paneling as well as "TATAMO! yoga", a yoga mat made from tatami material are currently under development.

The TATAMO! Project's founder, Kazuyuki MOMOSE shares his thoughts about the project:

"The TATAMO! Project is about expanding the possibilities of the tatami. Up until now, tatami has generally been regarded only as flooring for traditional Japanese architecture. I think that the main reason for this widely held view is because it is produced in fixed sizes. In the TATAMO! Project we want to break away from such constraints. In collaborating with designers we hope to create a variety of new products inspired by the philosophy of the TATAMO! Project."

"We did feel a bit hesitant about breaking away from the traditional concept of tatami materials but since we are using soft rush straw that would usually be discarded anyway we felt that finding fun uses for such material would find acceptance in today's market."

While many Japanese live in close proximity with tatami in their daily lives, many of them surprisingly do not know much about how tatami is made. Tatami has an inner core (tatami-doko) forming the mat made from rice straw or polystyrene foam wrapped with a cover (tatami-omote) made from woven soft rush straw (igusa). The edges of a tatami mat are sometimes fitted with a cloth edging (tatami-beri). The cover of a tatami mat is occasionally refitted to provide a new, clean cover in a process called "tatami-no-omotegae". Tatami covers are usually made by the soft rush straw farmers themselves using a weaving machine made specifically for manufacturing tatami covers.

However, because tatami are produced only in fixed, uniform sizes (eg. 176cm X 88cm in the Kanto region) soft rush farmers dispose of any straw that is too short to make tatami covers large enough for these defined sizes. This practice forms the basis for the TATAMO! project.

TATAMO! products use tatami covers manufactured in Japan in Yatsushiro City, Kumamoto Prefecture by certified eco-farmer Sei SONODA who uses minimal pesticides in his cultivation of soft rush. Momose met Sonoda 6 years ago as part of a group touring soft rush straw farms and they quickly became good friends. Experiencing the manufacturing process of tatami covers left a deep impression on Momose.

"Being friends with Sonoda allowed me to see the harvesting of soft rush, the weaving of the tatami covers and other things first hand that cannot be experienced working at a regular tatami shop. One day while I was helping with making tatami covers, Sonoda pulled up a truck load of soft rush straw and said he was going off to burn and dispose of it. I was surprised and asked him 'Are you really going to burn all that?' This is when I learned for the first time about the disposal of soft rush straw that is less than 94cm long. I think that many people, including tatami craftsmen, don't know about this mass disposal of soft rush."

Looking at the current market for tatami covers in Japan, covers made using Japanese grown soft rush account for only 20% of the entire market. The rest of the market is dominated by cheaper covers produced in China. On top of that, over 25% of all soft rush harvested is thrown away simply for being shorter than the 94cm required for fixed sized tatami mats. These problems have been a concern amongst soft rush straw farmers for quite some time.

Later, Momose was reminded of his experiences at Sonoda's farm while at a seminar in Matsumoto City. "It was a seminar on business collaborations between companies in the agriculture, commercial and manufacturing sectors. During the seminar, one person mentioned enjoying building businesses around using unused materials and that was when I recalled the burning of soft rush straw at Sonoda's farm. Sonoda expressed great interest in the idea after I shared it with him and was enthusiastic about trying it out."

To help support this new endeavor they filed an application for support provided through a policy enacted by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. The policy was aimed at supporting the development of new products and services through the cooperation between organizations in the agriculture and commercial sectors. Furthermore Momose was then introduced through a friend to another future team member: Haruaki TANAKA, CEO and creative director of the Harumaki Project.

"We were thinking that we would start out with a small product, and allow for a lot of freedom in its assembly and design. We felt that we needed to turn to a professional designer to properly express the ideas we had in mind for the project. Even though I only intended to discuss the possibility of collaborating on the design with Tanaka, the discussion eventually progressed as far as the branding of the product and he naturally became a member of the team." Tanaka would eventually become the creative director of the project.

The decline of the use of tatami has spread not only among younger generations but also among the elderly where the use of beds in barrier-free facilities is becoming ever more common. We asked Momose about his thoughts as a manager of a tatami shop in regards to this decline and the benefits of tatami over other materials.

"The unique feel and smell that you can only get from natural materials, that's what I think is so wonderful about Tatami . The feel of natural soft rush against one's skin is something that cannot be duplicated by any other material. This is why I feel using Sonoda's product for this project is of the utmost importance. The covers made by Sonoda have a shine like no other covers I have seen. The soft rush itself shines." Momose makes it clear that the quality of covers used in the TATAMO! Project is enough to make even tatami craftsmen like him take notice.

"The saddest thing for me as a tatami craftsman is when a customer wants to replace a tatami because it's been chafed or damaged and they don't have a choice. I would rather instead that customers replace their tatami because they themselves just want to. So, if a customer purchases a "TATAMO! yoga" exercise mat maybe they will begin to feel an increased connection with tatami through the use of the mat. Little by little, the person's consciousness towards tatami will begin to change and more and more TATAMO! products will become part of their daily lives. It is my hope that the TATAMO! Project can bring about that kind of shift in consciousness in the general public towards tatami."