Motozuka Shoemaker is a bespoke shoemaking workshop set up by Shigeki Motozuka in 2023. I have worked as a shoemaker/lastmaker in a shoemaking trade in Japan and Germany for about 15 years.
I started working as an uppermaker at the small workshop called Jakob Böhme in Ueno Sakuragi, Tokyo. My job at the workshop was to make uppers for ladies’ shoes one by one and it was the only thing I could do back then. I just went through an entrance of the handmade shoemaking world at that time. Fortunately I had got an opportunity to work with my hands and to have practical experience in my early days.
After a bit of study of footwear from health science perspective at the University, I had got another opportunity at Otsuka Shoe in Hiyoshi, Yokohama. Otsuka is known as the oldest shoemaking company with highly skilled shoemakers in Japan and has quite long history of shoemaking. They have been making shoes from 1872 and have a large, notable clientele such as royal families in Japan. At Otsuka, I was a person in charge of last making. I’d like to mention that working day in and day out surrounded by skilled craftspeople was brilliant way to develop my skills as a craftsperson and there is an endless amount to learn there after school and a textbook.
In 2018, I had moved to Berlin to work at Korbinian Ludwig Heß’s workshop. His workshop is a good example of true handmade shoemaking as it used to be. Almost all work there is done by hand as if 100 years ago. It is painfully time-consuming work for shoemakers but when it reaches an end of making process, you’ll see the shoes with a distinctive atmosphere that mechanised and simplified methods can’t archive. My role at KLH workshop was broad – from last making to bottom making, from dress oxfords to cowboy boots. Some of the work can be seen on the book “Herrenschuhe nach Maß” written by Bernhard Roetzel.
Currently I’m based in Chiba, Japan.
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2023 Motozuka Shoemaker (Chiba, Japan)
2018 – 2021 Korbinian Ludwig Heß (Berlin, Germany)
2012 – 2017 Otsuka Shoe (Yokohama, Japan)
2010 – 2012 Niigata University of Health and Welfare
Master of Health Science(Niigata, Japan)
2009 – 2010 Jakob Böhme (Tokyo, Japan)
2008 – 2009 Shoemaking College (Tokyo, Japan)