Our History

Our company began by weaving Sanada-braids as a side business for a farmer in 1887, using a location near the cotton trading center of Sakai. It is said that this began on the Day of the Boar in November. (source: Sanadaan in Kishu Kudoyama)

Just as work on Sanada cloth finally got on track, the Sanada cloth textile mill and rice granary were rebuilt in the autumn of 1892 to allow work to begin on the manufacturing of blankets, which was done through the use of a blanket hand loom. It is said that blanket manufacturing was more profitable than Sanada cloth and that it was like a factory in terms of scale.

Fukaki Boseki is founded in 1918 next to Otsu Orimono Shiage & Co. Ltd., itself jointly founded to offer finishing processing for blankets, and integrated production of blankets begins. One document records that they were the first in to Japan to introduce mule yarn spinning.

The price of rice rose sharply around this time, and the rice market was in chaos. Large-scale rice riots took place in Toyama Prefecture.

In 1931, the number of spinning machines for thin knitting yarn was increased and production of mixed knitting yarn made from lamb’s wool and cashmere began. The following year, production of cashmere shawls and fabric for overcoats began and in 1933, production of cashmere Japanese-style coats for ladies began.

In this year, Haneda Airfield (current Tokyo International Airport) was opened.

In 1936, the main woollen fabric factory was completed along what is now former National Route 26. This factory established the foundation of our company, making woollen textiles the main business.

The Diet Building in Nagatacho was completed in this year.

Through forced wartime mergers, the Fukaki Keito Boseki Co. Ltd. name was revived, and a new factory for yarn spinning was built in Asahi-cho on roughly 5,289 square meters of land to the east of Izumiōtsu Station.

The Constitution of Japan was adopted in this year.

Expansion of the woollen textile and yarn spinning factories was completed in 1950 and Fukaki Keito Boseki Co. Ltd. and Fukaki Woollen Textiles are renamed Fukaki Woollen Textile Co., Ltd., marking the start of this company with its unified operations of spinning and weaving.

In 1953, a dyeing and sorting factory was built on about 4,000 square meters of current land in Itahara-cho in Izumiotsu city. With this, the modern-day proprietary integrated production system of spinning, weaving, dyeing, and sorting was established.

The Amami Islands were returned to Japan in this year.

In 1970, the headquarters and woollen textile factory in Kasuga-cho are moved to Itahara-cho, where the dyeing and sorting factory are located.

A world’s fair was held in Japan in March of this year.

In the same year, our quality management system was certified to ISO9001.

In 1999, our environmental management system was certified to ISO14001.

In 2004, our occupational health and safety management system was certified to OHSAS18001 after our work environment was praised for being people-friendly.

In 1998 (Heisei 10), we obtained ISO 9001 certification, and subsequently, over the course of more than 20 years, we acquired ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 certifications [transitioned to ISO 45001 in 2019 (Reiwa 1)]. We have built our management systems based on these various standards, focusing on business quality, environmental preservation, and occupational health and safety, while making continuous improvements. However, as we have determined that the initial objectives of certification have permeated within the organization and employee awareness has significantly increased, we have decided to voluntarily relinquish our certifications effective November 2023 (Reiwa 5).
Regarding the future, we plan to build upon the management system we have established and operated thus far, transitioning to our own independent operations. In our efforts to fulfill our corporate social responsibility, we are committed to making even greater efforts in improvements and related activities in our business operations.