Technology & Concept
CONNECT WITH HOOKS - Manufacturing in-house for important use: Self-manufacturing spirit
Connect with the Beginning
The history of Katsuichi Co., Ltd. began when Konosuke Nakagawa opened the "Nakagawa Needle Factory" in 1920 in Kamae-cho, Nishiwaki City, which can be said to be the birthplace of Banshu hair needles.
Despite the repeated shortage of iron and other materials before and after the war, he continued in the needle manufacturing industry and was renamed to "Nakakawa Yukichi Shoten" in 1964. After being incorporated with "Katsuichi Co., Ltd." in 1983, it moved to 517-12 Kamamecho, the current location of the office and factory, and Akinori Nakagawa took over as the representative director. We will expand our business by applying the 2nd founding philosophy of “Challenge to Possibility”. 2015 Muneshige Nakagawa takes office as representative director. In 2017, the first factory, which adopted the latest technology, was relocated to a new location.
Connect with Company
When it became a company organization, the Katsushi-go took a major step toward a new course from the hair processing industry to the production of fishing hooks. Moreover, it was a challenge to manufacture in-house, high-quality carbon steel hooks for leisure fishing using special high carbon steel instead of iron needles which were the mainstream tool for fishermen at that time. Ayu's friend fishing boom and the influence of lure fishing from Europe and the United States were the reasons behind this, and we established a novel development model in the industry that takes feedback from top anglers and commercial fishers. The experience we have cultivated since our founding has been passed down to sports fishing items both in Japan and overseas, and has led to our current competency, which has a series of corporate activities of planning, design & development, manufacturing, sales, and shipping. We currently own a head office, a warehouse, a first factory, a second factory in Japan, and our own factory overseas, and manufacture and sell fishhooks.
Connect with TEC
Commitment to in-house production, passion for own furnaces
Among various manufacturing of fishing hooks, "quenching" is the process of burning the soul into the needles. The technical staff hardens the carefully selected materials with high heat, tempers them, and sets them on their mission as a strong fishing hooks.
In 1994, we developed our own custom-made fishing hooks and processed them using a "dedicated furnace" instead of a general-purpose furnace. This process was completely different from the batch type vacuum furnace used in conventional heat treatment. The birth of a movable dedicated furnace specialized for quenching work of fish hooks is when the "K-Grit manufacturing method" was completed. Since this manufacturing method had a short delivery time and was excellent in processing, it greatly contributed to needle production during the bass fishing boom. Furthermore, in 2015, about 20 years later, we made a further evolution of the K-Grit manufacturing method to produce a new "K2-Grit manufacturing" furnace in order to enable the production of large-scale marine game fishing hooks that require greater strength. A more complete non-oxidized state in the furnace, digital control of decarburization, and distortion of steel material that is likely to occur by heat treatment, structural change of material, etc., realized dramatic improvement in quality and allowed further quenching of large hooks.
A good analogy for this new reactor is the improvement of car fuel efficiency technology, for example: "how effectively do you use 1 liter of gasoline with an engine of the same displacement?" Our process has evolved into a large-scale furnace that maximizes the potential and strength of the material and maximizes the use of heat. Specializing in the current mainstream lure hooks, all the fish hooks we currently handle are heat-treated and controlled by these three in-house furnaces.
Connect with Craftmanship
Made in OUR FACTORY Made by OURSELF
Generally, it has been said that the automation of molding and surface treatment of fishhooks has been difficult in the past, but the fact that the staff members are facing the challenge of possibility, which is the philosophy of the second founding, means that the company's processing technology is new. Spurred on.
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It begins with digitizing the craftsmanship that has been passed down for many years with the latest technology. Instead of “craftsmanship” and “digital” conflicting within our company, we created a mutually beneficial relationship, successfully drawing out the advantages of each other and dramatically stabilizing production efficiency and accuracy. Instead of relying on outsourcing or fabless, the attitude of "rationalizing in-house production by ourselves" created a new production trend, and "possibility" changed to "possible".
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"MADE IN JAPAN" products have been attracting attention since around 2010. However, it is true that there was a time when the hardware aspects of our own factories and equipment seemed to be a stumbling block to management. In many cases, many companies have moved to overseas factories that can produce at low cost, and at the same time technology has leaked. However, since our founding, we have been in-house manufacturing and accumulated know-how since our founding. It was because we believed that maintaining the spirit of Japan as a manufacturing and processing industry that survived in the world would lead to improvements in production speed, quality control, development, international strength, and cost performance.
Now, with tens of thousands of new products on the market annually, how many products have disappeared? Unfortunately, due to the circumstances of the company, the products are now disappearing due to production reasons.
Lure Magazine awarded us the TACKLE OF THE YEAR 1st prize in the hook category eight times in 2007-2016
We continue to produce many products that can be called masterpieces that are loved and supported by our customers, and we are able to receive such evaluations, which is one of the proofs of our technological capabilities.
Connect with Fish & Fisher
In addition to the domestic evaluation mentioned above, Katsuchi's products are beginning to reach anglers around the world.
Angler going on an overseas expedition.
The latest tackle for monster fish is selected locally
Record fish update! The local guide is amazed by the strength of our needles!
Our reputation is reported to the fishing shop
And the reputation reaches the buyers of each country
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I'm often amazed that all of Katsuchi's official overseas distributors are now business relationships that started with inquiries from buyers. Exported to over 30 overseas customers around the world, the hooks made by our small needle shop with the patronage of everyone have become hook brands recognized by anglers around the world.
Regardless of the world region, we continue to be close to the angler. Because it is an era when various information flies and options are limitless, we do not just focus on mass production and cost reduction, we use products carefully. In the digital world, the unchanging analog steel soul of in-house production connects us with fish and continues to connect with anglers.
In United States, The Fisherman's Hut in Tampa Florida is the official Katsuichi Decoy distributor.