Yukino Matsumoto grew up in Amami Ōshima, a forest-rich island in Japan that's home to 80 kinds of wild orchids and unique animals. There's the Ishikawa frog, with its wallpaper-like patterns, and the Amami rabbit, known as a "living fossil".
Her upbringing on Amami Island inspired her to open Simply Native, a Sydney shop that celebrates artisans from her homeland. As the daughter of a third-generation kimono-maker, she has great admiration for craftspeople. "It's actually the main reason why I started Simply Native," she says.
On Amami Island, kimono-making has a rich history. Oshima Tsumugi silk fabric, which is featured in traditional kimonos, has been woven there for more than 1300 years. "What was unique about our island kimonos is that we dyed our textiles in the mud pond to make it completely black," she adds.
Yukino Matsumoto of Simply Native. Source: Yukino Matsumoto
"Kimono production is done by 20 different artisans, with 30 different processes," Matsumoto says. "My home town's kimono takes half a year. Or a really precise one, it takes one and a half years to complete."
Her father coordinated the artisans – many of them were his friends who were talented in other ways: they'd shape nets out of bamboo, so the family could go "shrimp-hunting in the deep river in the forest", Matsumoto recalls.
My home town's kimono takes half a year. Or a really precise one, it takes one and a half years to complete.
With the Westernisation of Japanese fashion, she says demand for kimonos dropped. Consequently, the island's 20,000 kimono artisans dwindled to 500 craftspeople in a generation, many of them aged in their 70s or 80s, The New York Times reported in 2015.
"My dad chose to close the family tradition," she says, but her connection to artisans lives on through Simply Native. The business began as an online-only shop, with Matsumoto selling Japanese crafts to restaurants, such as LuMi Dining, Gogyo and Raku. But she couldn't properly showcase the people behind these objects without a physical shopfront – so she opened Simply Native's Surry Hills store in June 2021.
You'll find tea across Japan on her shelves: from jade-like matcha, by a 300-year-old Kyoto tea merchant, to Hokkaido soba tea – "it's got really crispy, nutty flavours," she says. The shop owner is especially proud that she offers amacha (hydrangea tea), which is traditionally consumed on Buddha's birthday.
"That tea is served at the temples and shrines in Kyoto," she says. A friend sent it to her as a 'good luck surviving Sydney's lockdown' present in 2021. "It was his product and we tried it and we were really surprised." It joins other unique brews sold at Simply Native, including a black bean tea and obukucha, known as 'good fortune tea'. Reportedly invented by a Buddhist monk in 951 as an epidemic struck Kyoto, his tea infused with kelp and sour plums apparently prevented people from becoming ill. Today, the drink is presented in the new year or on other special occasions as an act of good luck.
Each item at Simply Native has a memorable back story – and the best one might belong to Kyozuke, a family-run business from Kyoto that originally began pickling vegetables in sake barrels in 1918. It was about to shut down – and was saved by a new generation – in 2020.
"That pickle was created by three young gentlemen who took over the closing business, which was owned by an 84-year-old gentleman who dedicated his life to Japanese pickle-making. His recipe was beautiful, but he didn’t have successors. He already decided to close down," Matsumoto says. "But these three men loved his recipe and convinced the old man to teach them the recipe."
The shelves at Simply Native (and its online store) are filled with the charm of one-of-a-kind products, but they're not always easy to find.
"You'd be surprised that I'm still using fax to communicate with some artisans," she says. "Some artisans are really hard to reach, but once you get their trust, you'll get introduced to another friend of them. So that's how I develop my network."
Some craftsmen are in their 70s, and she admits they might find it "scary" being approached by a young woman who started her business at 26. "Because I'm a daughter of a kimono-maker, I think that's a trust-building factor, an ice-breaker for me."
Meeting a producer in person also helps enrich relationships and that's what happened when she returned to Amami Ōshima in July.
"That's how I found the coffee in my home town," she says. Amami Island Coffee uses beans grown in the forested region, which has been recognised as a UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site for its unique biodiversity. This business was started by a former TV producer from Tokyo, who couldn't resist Amami Ōshima's surf conditions. So he relocated there and opened Amami Island Coffee in 2020. "He started making the drip coffee packets," she says. "The flavour is beautiful, but I'm more attached to the story and effort of what he is doing."
The buzz of caffeine also powers the knitted socks sold at Simply Native. They're from Nara prefecture and are crafted from leftover threads and dyed in coffee waste – they're an inspired example of sustainability. "All of our products are full of beautiful stories," she says.
From the ceremonial-grade matcha she pours during the store's blind tea tastings to the traditional wagashi confectionery she ships directly from Kyoto (including a persimmon flavour crafted by "a family of samurai who served the Imperial Court for many generations”), Matsumoto is thrilled to highlight the people behind these products from her homeland. With plans to move into a larger space in March – with a tea house inside – there will be even greater opportunities to showcase the culture of Japan.
She points out that most of her customers aren't Japanese and some even have trouble distinguishing her birthplace from other parts of Asia. "We're bringing an undiscovered side of Japan to the people who are not familiar with the culture," she says proudly.
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