Leif.designpark has made everything from furniture and interior designs to artwork and has displayed their work at exhibits around the world, including the Saloni Milano in Italy. They work diligently on their designs while working directly with the raw components. Just how exactly did they take tatami, a traditional Japanese material, and turn it into a yoga mat? We asked Keizaburo HONDA of Leif.designpark:

“I heard from TATAMO! creative director Haruaki TANAKA and he asked ‘Can you make anything out of soft rush straw?’ I was really happy to design something with that material which is used in tatami mats. I decided to take the job because I like traditional Japanese-style rooms and I personally have quite an affection for tatami.”

Honda became a part of the TATAMO! Project at a very early phase. At that point meetings included not only the project representatives such as tatami store owner Kazuki MOMOSE and soft rush straw farmer Sei SONODA, but also Honda as well and together they hashed out and conceived a product that would fit the TATAMO! vision. Honda recalled what a great experience it was that the straw farmer was in touch with him from the beginning:

“Up until that point, I’d worked on many projects where I was able to talk with the person in charge but it was very rare to be able to meet with the person who produced the actual materials. Being able to communicate back and forth with Sonoda was refreshing and I really learned a lot from the experience. When we were discussing what should be the initial TATAMO! product, I learned that they were already producing tatami mat covers and planned to use these materials to eventually create a number of products. What we ended up deciding was that the best initial product would be one that was durable and could stand the test of time,” says Honda.

The TATAMO! Project uses soft rush straw that is shorter than 94cm, which is too short for standard tatami mats and so is typically just disposed of. Our goal was to create a green product using this straw produced in Japan. There were apparently suggestions that the initial product should be a placemat or bath mat, however with the future in mind it was decided that it would be best to first release a product that would really test the durability of the tatami, and then expand the product line based on the results; thus we went with the yoga mat.

Once the decision was made to produce and sell the TATAMO! yoga mat, Leif.designpark and Sonoda discussed many things related to the tatami such as the weave, color, and pattern.

“One of the first samples Sonoda showed me was the meseki weave tatami cover. The meseki weave has a tight mesh and so that allows for a thicker cover than usual. The shadowed and non-shadowed portions of the cover are clear to the eye and so part of the tatami appears to be floating on the surface. That particular weave was quite beautiful and definitely left an impression, in the end we all agreed to go with the meseki weave,” recalls Honda.

It’s hard to see the final product and not be surprised by its beautiful color. It’s not widely known, but soft rush straw can be dyed a variety of colors like black, red, yellow, and even some bright colors where at first glance you wouldn’t even recognize it as soft rush straw. Starting with around 20 different colors of dyed samples, we narrowed those down to a just a few that would best fit the TATAMO! yoga mat. In the end, a total of six different color combinations were approved, with each combination available in two different styles.

“While there are existing products that are made from dyed soft brush straw, they don’t typically leave nearly as strong of an impression as ours. From the very beginning of the TATAMO! Project, we were all of the same mind that we really wanted one of the product’s key points to be its gorgeous color. However, I was worried about how we were going bring the colors to life on the thicker meseki weave, and I was particularly concerned about the ribbon that would be used around the edge of the mat,” admits Honda.

“There are two different design styles of the TATAMO! yoga, in one design the mat’s two colors are split evenly across the mat (the 1:1 ratio mat), and in the other one color takes up 75% of the mat space while the other color occupies 25% (the 1:3 ratio mat). We paid special attention to keeping the lines on these mats perpendicular. I used to do tea ceremony and its etiquette strictly prohibits sitting diagonally on a tatami mat, so with that in mind we made sure to align everything on a strictly horizontal and vertical grid. This traditional practice from ancient Japan is also a part of the TATAMO! yoga design. Another reason for these ratios is that when someone is doing yoga on the mat, it’s easier to concentrate on your center of gravity and the position of your head when focusing on the mat’s color divider. In this way, the separation of the two colors serves as marker that may be useful in making yoga poses.”

Through a long process of repeated trial and error, Leif.designpark eventually developed six color combinations as well as three edge ribbons that took full advantage of TATAMO!'s natural materials as well as the inherent beauty of the mat. And thus, a never before seen all-natural yoga mat was born.

Since yoga mats are used repeatedly for exercise, durability and comfort were of the utmost importance. In the testing phase, weights were put on the mat and then we’d add friction. On top of this, an actual yoga instructor sampled the mat as well.

“When we’d reached the stage where we had an actual mat, I tried doing some yoga on it myself and it felt nice. But I’m still just a beginner at yoga so to get a more accurate opinion I asked a yoga instructor I know to give it a try. He tried out various yoga poses and assured me that it was indeed comfortable. Users have said they find our mat more relaxing than regular yoga mats because when they walk on it barefoot it feels like an actual tatami mat, and they can smell the aroma of the soft rush straw,” explains Honda.

“One thing about the mat that we’d like to improve is that it’s not as thick as other mats available on the market and so it can slide easily when used on floors. Based on this fact, we asked Sonoda to try and make the tatami cover as thick as he possibly could. We tried applying something to reduce the sliding, but as we are using all-natural materials for this product we weren’t able to find a one-size-fits-all solution. However, for customers who are interested, we are producing a specially-designed slip-reduction mat,” says Honda.

The soft rush straw used in the TATAMO! yoga, grown on Sonoda’s farm, is thicker than most, with a nice fragrance, not to mention its very long lifespan. It is a high-quality material that is suitable for tatami mats even at Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples ? TATAMO! is the perfect companion to the ancient art of yoga. However, there are many varieties of yoga and not everyone practicing it is necessarily looking for the exact same thing. We feel that the TATAMO! yoga is an ideal mat for those looking for an especially relaxing workout where they can take in the spring of the mat as well as the aroma of soft rush straw.

“I’d love it if people outside of Japan used the TATAMO! yoga as well. TATAMO!'s yoga and floor products were displayed at the “Trans-i +” exhibit, part of the Rebirth Project, held at Pass the Baton in Omotesando Hills. There were a number of rush straw items there but ours stood out. Some people were so surprised they couldn’t even figure out what our products were made out of at first glance. We have such a novel product that it doesn’t really bother me if people want to use it as something other than a yoga mat,” says Honda.

Perhaps tatami, traditionally limited to Japan, will become a widely known material around the world as people adapt it to their needs. It may not be long before people from many different age groups and countries are taking advantage of TATAMO! yoga.

Yatsushiro City, in Kumamoto Prefecture, is Japan's #1 soft rush straw producing region. To this day, rich rural landscapes extend over the Yatsushiro plain, land reclaimed from the sea during the Edo period and nourished to this day by the Kuma River. All TATAMO! products use tatami covers made from soft rush straw produced by Sei Sonoda, a Kumamoto Prefecture certified eco-farmer.

The soft rush straw cultivated by Sonoda is actually a special variety.The most common variety of soft rush straw in the market today is called "Hinomidori", a fairly thin variety of soft rush straw. Beautiful and intricately woven tatami covers are made from Hinomidori straw, but it is this thinness which also makes it relatively fragile. Thats why Sonoda grows a thick, strong variety of soft rush called "Yuunagi". Tatami covers made with Yuunagi straw are thick and strong, with a solid feel.

A size comparison could be made by likening Hinomidori straw to thin rice flour noodles, and Yuunagi straw to thicker buckwheat noodles. You can feel it's Yuunagi straw when you step firmly on a tatami mat and it pushes back with elasticity.

"The reason I chose to grow Yuunagi straw is because I want our customers to experience its unique strength and vitality. I think people will be reinvigorated by living their daily lives in rooms laid out with tatami that is full of that vitality. This year I have also started growing a new type of straw called “Hinoharuka”, a variety which stays strong in snow and rain, and I am really looking forward to seeing a finished product using it."

Cultivation of soft rush straw typically starts with the planting of seedlings in mid-November and harvesting in late June in the following year. While herbicides and pesticides are sprayed during that period, Sonoda has decided to spray less than the standards set by the national and prefecture governments to reduce pesticides used in cultivation. Herbicide sprayings in Sonoda's fields finish by early May. He believes that spraying less and allowing a 2 to 3 month span before the harvest eliminates harmful effects of herbicides on the human body. Pesticide sprayings end 1 month prior to harvest. Producing good rush straw comes from scientifically grounded daily measurements and making a plan to ensure results.

"On one hot day a while back, I wasn't wearing a mask when spraying pesticides. I spent the day in a haze and there was even one hour where I couldn't remember what I did. I also felt nauseous all day. I guess it was my own fault for not wearing a mask," Sonoda said. From his firsthand experience, Sonoda began to think about the risks of pesticides and herbicides to humans.

The risks of agricultural chemicals affect not only consumers who lead their daily lives on tatami mats, but is also a serious problem for tatami producers. To minimize these effects, Sonoda started to visit the local farmers' cooperative to study the relationship between seasonal temperatures and the growth cycle of insect pests, and the varieties of chemicals that target different stages of insect life cycles. After thorough study and testing, Sonoda was able to formulate proven methods that apply the appropriate chemical in minimal amounts under predetermined conditions.

Every year, Sonoda tests his straw for agricultural chemicals. A strict regimen of over 100 tests are performed, but even a trace herbicide or insecticide has yet to be found. In other words, the straw has been proven safe enough for a baby to lick.

Sonoda's straw not only rates highly for safety, but also achieves superior ratings in tests for durability. A cut section of a tatami cover is rubbed with sandpaper and the change in the cover's thickness is measured. Regular tatami covers show average wear of approximately 0.35 millimeters. Tatami covers made by Sonoda hold a record at the Kitade Association for the Promotion of Tatami (of which Sonoda is a member), showing wear of only 0.02 millimetres. "I do sometimes like to brag about our tatami covers being the strongest in all of Japan," quips Sonoda.

Because soft rush straw is 100% natural, after cutting farmers generally recycle any waste straw as fertilizer by burying it directly into their fields or by incineration.

The process of making tatami covers starts with dyeing the harvested straw with mud. The straw is then dried and woven into covers using a special tatami weaving machine. A large number of the 80% of tatami covers in Japan that were made in China contain herbicides, pesticides and are dyed using artificial coloring agents.

Sonoda uses timeless traditional methods and dyes with only natural mud. And because the thread used in weaving the tatami covers (for products that use this thread) is flax and pure cotton, the tatami covers can return to nature over time.

Well maintained tatami mats can generally last for 10 to 20 years. TATAMO! aims for a lifestyle with soft rush that can coexist with new designer products.

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."