Japanese ‘Omotenashi’ Mind at Traditional Industries—A Case of Kanaami Research

Abstract

In Japan, that satisfaction was the result of hospitality heart—’Omotenashi’, which has been widely applied as a keyword or standard in service industry and manufacturing for the top level services and products, which may provide affective experience and suggest a deeper part of the human consciousness. In addition, the ‘Omotenashi’ service behavior and its superiority were also analyzed for expanding and applying ‘Omotenashi’ mind to world business. In a word, this research mainly discussed the application feasibility in other countries based on the produced benefits and proposed some contributed advices for their development. ‘Kana-ami’ is a kind of metal wire network, which was employed as one kitchen instrument or fence knitting for cultural relic in Kyoto. Date back to around 50 years ago, there were about 50 handmade wire net shops in Kyoto. And it has decreased dramatic until 7 shops now, and there are less than two masters in each shop. However, Just this few people have been committed to the quantitative research of ‘Kana-ami’ technology in order to keep this culture wealth with ‘Omotenashi’ spirit. In this study, cooperating with ‘Kanaami Tsuji’ workshop, their full concentration and effort on ‘Kana-ami’ enterprise was employed as the example to present ‘Omotenashi’ mind annotated Japanese insistence, wisdom and dedication. The wire net masters, expert and nonexpert, were employed as the target investigated subject. The main difference of ‘Kana-ami’ production process and quality evaluation between expert and non-expert was investigated and listed in order to clear the production skills and product performances. In a word, the making process of ‘Kana-ami’ does not use the machine, and ‘Kanami Tsuji’ workshop always try to prepare the perfect products with a calm mood, which are liked by customers at the deepest heart. Compared with the profits, what matters more is appreciate and love from customer. That is ‘Omotenashi’ mind