Senshukai began selling kokeshi dolls in the 1950s and later expanded into mail-order businesses, including subscription-based product deliveries. The article discusses the founders’ struggles, their connection with women’s growing participation in society, and the process of shifting to the current system centered on online shopping. It then introduces the features of initiatives built around kokeshi dolls and the company’s emphasis on user feedback through monitor meetings and other forums.
Senshukai began selling kokeshi dolls in 1954. In the company’s early years, women’s growing participation in society was a factor. Yukimachi (行待氏) proposed selling kokeshi dolls, but Takai (高井氏) opposed the idea. Senshukai was established in 1955, and the company began selling kokeshi dolls in earnest.
In response to changes in market conditions from the 1930s onward, kokeshi sales developed into a subscription-based system that delivered different products each month. Membership reached 40,000 within 2 years of the service’s launch in 1955. However, as the times changed, the company ended kokeshi sales around 1963 and shifted to other products, including Cook and Royal Pet.
In 2015, the company’s 60th anniversary, it held a kokeshi painting workshop. More than approximately 1,000 people, including employees, made kokeshi dolls, introducing the company’s roots both inside and outside the organization. Designs also diversified, with character-style kokeshi dolls appearing amid the third kokeshi boom.
Today, Senshukai centers its mail-order business on Belle Maison Net and regularly holds monitor meetings that emphasize incorporating customer feedback cultivated over many years. The company continues to provide opportunities to hear directly from users and apply the views of people with childcare experience to product development.