Among the skills required of a master brushmaker at Hakuhodo is the ability to identify, by touch, a slightly misaligned hair among the dozens or hundreds that make up the head of a high-end makeup brush.
Hakuhodo, a family-owned company with 80 full-time employees, rules the global market for such brushes from its base in Kumano, just east of Hiroshima. Its founder, Kazuo Takamoto, drew on the traditions of Kumano’s local calligraphy-brush industry to build a business that today supplies the world’s top cosmetics groups.
