Introduction to Niwashi Japanese Tools

Join us with Yurika and Phil for a casual introduction into the Niwashi range of Japanese garden tools.

- History of these tools and how Yurika and Phil started their business

- Demonstrations of the Niwashi Range ( Digi, Niwashi, Trilux, Grubber )

- How to care for your tools

A brief History:

Yurika and I were living in Japan in the early 1990s. We were there for several years, I was studying genetics and Yurika was working part time in one of the labs in same university. My mother who is an avid gardener would come to Japan to visit us from time to time. One day Yurika was showing my mum around a hardware store near us when my mum spotted a unusual Japanese gardening tool (traditional right handed). Yurika bought one for my mum and she took it back to NZ.From then onwards each time we went home we were asked to buy some tools from Japan for her or her gardening friends.

So in 1998 we imported the minimum amount we could, just to keep mum quiet, I think it was 600 or so tools and we managed into the Ellerslie flower show, which was the biggest garden show in those days. We knew nothing about shows or how to sell tools in fact we didn’t know much about anything. Mum quickly whipped some covers up for some trestle tables and I made a box to fill with dirt to demonstrate the tools in.

Much to our surprise we should nearly all of our tools. This was shock to us, as I thought 600 tools was enough for the whole country, and wondered what we would do next.

Details:

176 Piccadilly Rd

Piccadilly

Saturday 28th October

10am - 11:30am