Matsunoya's Summer Hardware Market is held by Matsunoya, a hardware wholesaler that deals in everyday items that have been a part of our lives since ancient times. This year marks the seventh annual event, which kicked off at Bakuro-cho ART+EAT.


In recent years, it has become common to see "hardware" items such as buckets, scrubbing brushes, and brooms on the floors of fashion select shops and department stores. For over 40 years, store owner Matsuno Hiroshi has been visiting small factories and makers across Japan to find and sell unique hardware items.

The hardware goods that Matsuno has highlighted, such as bamboo market baskets made by artisans in Iwate who were only known locally, Japanese brooms made by an elderly couple in Tochigi, and buckets produced in a downtown factory in Osaka, are now spreading through Matsunoya to select shops not only in Japan but all over the world.

"In the past and even now, there's nothing interesting about going to famous places to buy goods. We ask local people about lesser-known makers and workshops, and the tools we find have now become our signature products. As a wholesaler, we want to continue to create demand for the long term, boost local industries, and help pass on the skills of makers," he says.


Hiroshi Matsuno, owner of "Matsunoya: Tools for Living"
This year marks the 7th annual "Matsunoya Summer Hardware and General Goods Market"
The hardware and general goods market features a wide selection of Matsunoya's signature products. It's not just the merchandise that's on sale, but the events that take place during the market are also not to be missed. There will be a tip-based live performance on the 13th, and on the 14th there will be a "Duster Rag Workshop" by Matsunoya's proprietress Kinuko, as well as a "Demonstration Talk Show" by long-time associates, a Japanese broom craftsman, and a tinplate craftsman. There will also be a "Useless Marketing Lecture for Bunka-ya General Store" by Hasegawa Yoshitaro, former owner of the legendary general store, Bunka-ya General Store.

In these days of what is said to be a tool boom, why not take a look at Matsunoya's Summer Hardware and General Goods Market, an event where you can experience not only the tools but also the passion of the makers?