Every year, I make a chair for my wife as a birthday gift. Unlike work or a contest, it's a once-a-year opportunity to just create without worrying about the results. She is my wife, the mother of our four children, and the owner of KOMA shop. My wife had worked at a department store for 15 years since she was 20 and had recently retired early, saying she wanted to take it easy for a while, but she agreed to something difficult, saying she really wanted us to open a directly managed store at this very moment, and KOMA shop started in 2013 in a small space of 10 tsubo. Seven years have passed since then, and it has grown little by little, and this year it has expanded to nearly 100 tsubo, thanks to none other than her efforts. I got married soon after starting my training as a furniture maker, and when my eldest daughter, who was born that same year, turned two years old, I suddenly told her I had decided to become independent, and she didn't object at all. Shortly after we became independent, our first son was born, but I couldn't earn a salary, we couldn't eat, and we couldn't even pay the rent on our apartment. Years later, when things had gotten a little better, I asked him why he never complained at all. "Because I believe you're a man who can work hard," he said. Anyway, my wife is a good looking woman.
