Dry Cleaning Shop where finishes one by one with hands

“It is hard work; however I don’t get tired of it for the past 40 years.”

“Looking like Hand-Finished is His Personality”

He keeps doing double washing and sun drying.

Heavy iron slides on a cutter shirt like dancing while generating steam with hissing sounds.”Although irons become lighter these days, in the old days, it is about 4 kg.

It was heavier than now.” When he was 17, he came to Kyoto from Ishikawa and gained training because he wanted to get a marketable skill. His name is Kotaro Higashide. 40 years ago, he opened this shop in Uzumasa.

He is a self-made man. “Iron’s shape is well made. If it was square or circle, it wouldn’t work like this. Everyone can press every corner beautifully because of this shape.” I asked him the reason why he also presses the inner side of a collar well. “It makes a good slip when he or she wears a tie. Basic of dry cleaning is cutter shirts!

If you can finish it perfectly, you can do other ones.” I understood that many regulars asked his iron finish. I heard that people in Kameoka-city came here for that.

Want to Make it Pure White; Double Washing and Sun Drying

With the times, many cleaning shops perform dry cleaning with volatile oil. However this shop has been doing double washing since opening. “Washing with only oil is insufficient. If they want to make it pure white, they have to wash with water. After that, they have to do sun drying.” Mr. Higashide keeps dry washing and water washing although it takes twice or three times more time. And he goes on top of the roof, sun drying area, with about 30 kg of laundry. “I hang all up here. Sometimes I hang up about 100 shirts. It is hard but it makes these dry with the aroma of sun.

Dryer can’t do this.” He hooks all hangers into the twist part of a rope not to be blown away by the wind. The laundry is exposed to sunlight and wind. He dose it once or twice a day In winter, his hands, holding laundry, go numb.

The mind of Higashide Cleaning has never changed

“I didn’t have a car or a motorbike, so I used to walk and work outside.” Even now, he still works outside twice a week. While remembering a lot of hardship in the beginning when he opened his shop, he continued talking. “Those days, I had no money, so I said my customer, ‘I’ll finish today!’ and I got cash. After 3 months, I bought a used motorbike. Situation is a lot different now than before. But I’ve still been doing the same thing.” Of course, business stability is different from how it was then. However Higashide Cleaning’s policy, that are double washing, sun drying and hand-finished iron one by one, has never changed for nearly 40 years. “It is hard work; however I don’t get tired of it even though I am doing it for the past 40 years.” You can see Mr. Higashide ironing from a big glass window hanging clothes.