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More than five(7) years have quickly passed since we returned to USA from Japan. We started our internet mail order in the late 1999[actually we were in California 1977-1986 and opened a store in Fountain Valley, CA (1982-1985) under the name of NAGATO CORPORATION,
AMERICA (NCA-established in 1977)].  Doing Business As IMPERIAL KAMADO since 1998.

After beginning our internet business, we received unexpectedly large number of requests for replacement parts for these long-surviving classics. A big surprise was to learn that many thousands were still in use, or got stored away when the original owner passed on. Most of these aforementioned Kamados had been sold by our US importers, dealer and stores like Pachinko Palace(1973-1982), Pier One(1979-1984) and Barbeques　Galore(1978-1995), and included our store in Fountain Valley(1983-1985) as well as other dealers in other states. We exported approximately 60,000 units starting from 1973-1995 under the name of NAGATO SHOKAI, INC. (NSI-Yokohama Japan, established in 1955 as the parent company of NCA).

Due to the above indirect sales system, we did not have a chance to communicate with many of our end-users in the USA.  You needed our help in restoring or replacing your units.  Now through the miracle of internet, knowing who you are will allow us to support you more fully.  In fact, through your feed-back during the last 7 years we have learned a lot from our customers.

First of all, our Kamado owners are a close, friendly & unique group, made up of special type persons who want the best, know quality and are not fooled by misleading claims or empty inducements. Secondly, we found that Kamado users get attached to their appliances. They are eager to tell us and others that Kamado is a world’s best cooker and smoker that they ever had.  Thirdly, they have maintained their Kamado as treasured heirlooms.  Now that they can replace parts & rejuvenate the units, they are positively thrilled.  We did not realize there was so much product loyalty.

One of our customers, age 30 or so, came to our office to pick up replacement parts for his dad’s old Kamado telling us his grandfather was the original owner.  The family has since purchased 3 Kamados.  It made our day and gave us great inner satisfaction.  Another recent experience needs to be re-told.  We have a long-time Kamado owner who makes his living in the selling of American-style (flash-and-burn) outdoor grills.  Like the car salesman who knows his firm’s products but himself drives a vintage classic auto, this expert goes home to a genuine Kamado.  His words to us were “If someone is trying to choose the better cooker/smoker, let him try to smoke cheese with Brand X, as compared to the tasty Kamado result.  You just know who emerges the winner”.

Experiences and accolades such as these help counterbalance all the struggles & hard times our company has gone through. It was personal loyalty to you the hardcore of owners that made us persist in this business.  It was fanatic adherence to the knowledge that only earthenware (and not ceramics or heat-conductive composites) cookware resulted in optimal taste.

We came to US to serve these loyal customers in the face of difficulties & strong competition from copy-cat opportunists.  In fact, the weakening of the US dollar’s exchange rate compared to strong Japanese yen spelled doom for most Japanese exporters. [in 1973 the dollar could buy a 300 yen product but then weakened so it could only buy an 180 yen(1987) product].  It was untenable to remain in the US without drastically increasing prices, so we closed our store in Fountain Valley (1985) and left California.  We resumed to exporting in a small way from Japan again under the name of NSI.  Stubbornly, we continued to export to the US even at the extremes of the “weak-dollar, strong-yen years”. [The debilitated dollar dropped as low as 80 yen, making purchases of Japanese exports much more unattainable to the US buyer using dollar!]

1. Sales plummeted, business suffered, and many bankruptcies occurred as Japanese exporters could not sell at such exchange rate.  We saw the dollar lose almost three-fourths of its value against the yen.  To continue our business, we gave exclusive sales rights in southern California to the Barbeques Galore in 1985 and then gradually the territories were expanded to all California, Nevada, Arizona.
   
   Our supply to the US market came to a holding pattern on the death of our last Japanese craftsman in 1995.  It took a 3 year, multi-nation search and painstaking testing before finding the proper replacement in terms of soil, craftsmen, and factory. (which is now centered in China )
   
   However, the 3 year interruption in our supply from 1995 to 1998 took its toll on business.  Trying to ride the coattails of the popularity of our unique & original products, as many as 5 companies began advertising through publications, and the internet that their imitation products were a rebirth of the original Japanese Kamado.
   
   In line with my announcement that I am looking for a successor to the business, the following history of the firm & my personal history is offered:
   
   NAGATO SHOKAI, INC. was founded in Yokohama, Japan by Makoto Nagaoka in 1955, the name being a combination of the first 4 letters of my last name the last 2 letters of my first name.  In English, it appropriately means a “Long Gate” (my goal was to continue the business for a long time, I am now 76 years old and have been in the business for 50 years).
   My main business at first was to supply general merchandise to Far East US Military Exchanges as a vendor.  In 1956. I had a chance to go abroad the US to attend the World Trade Fair held in Seattle, Washington on a sponsorship from my native government, Kanagawa-prefecture.  I was then 27 years old.  It was my dream to visit & study in Seattle as my parents lived there from 1910 – 1920.
   
   By DC-6, it took me more than 18 hours to get to Seattle, for stops at Wake Island, Honolulu, & San Francisco were necessary.  After travel for about a month( San Francisco, Denver, Chicago, Washington, New York and Los Angeles, Hawaii), I was so impressed not only with the size of America but with the opportunities available.
   
   When I visited the top of Empire State Building, I resolved to return to New York for business.  In 1960, I was elected as a market research representative for the Kanagawa Governor for one year stint in New York.  At the same time, the Kanagawa Government announced that it would participate in the World Trade Show in New York.
   
   I was looking for some suitable item to display and promote at the show and I finally found it, quite by co-incidence and with lots of excitement.
   
   If my memory is correct it was February 1960, on my birthday that my mother sent me a tiny washing machine hand –operated to create motion & pressure, and a supply of US-made cloth diapers. It was a timely gift, as my first baby boy was born in the late December 1959.(unfortunately, he went into a different profession) My mother insisted that one should wash diapers separate from other laundry.  The patented aluminum miniature pressure washing machine was operated by hand. Using hot water, it took 30 seconds to wash several diapers at a time and the device performed perfectly.  We were then living in a small apartment with a small back yard and could dry the diapers in the sun.  One day, my wife told me that many neighbors asked her what kind of washing machine was it that resulted in such white, clean and damage-free diapers.
   
   When I heard her story, I first thought it was because of superior American cloth material that the diapers were made of.  But then I realized that I had a product that was ideal for the US market.  Coin laundries were inconvenient and using them was time inefficient.  In the US apartment, hot water was plentiful, and the busy working housewife could finish small bits of laundry in no time at all.  In contrast, in 1960, instant hot water was not common in Japan.  My experience doing my own travel laundry by hand in hotels and business instincts led to a lucky decision.
    
2. After negotiation with the manufacturer (at that time, one of the leading Japanese business enterprises) I decided to go with this product but ”experts” (members of the manufacturer’s staff) all said it was against common sense to choose such a device for display and export.  They contended that advanced countries all had electric washing machines in their homes.  My mother was alone in her encouragement and thought it was a good product to promote.  So I brought the mini hand pressure washer named “KAMOME(sea-gull) Washer” to the World Trade Show in New York, in May 1960 (Jet airplane were already available) when I was 31 years old.  I displayed 20 units and demonstrated the 30 second procedure to the crowds at the trade show, trying to find a buyer FOB Japan for price of 5 US dollars. (a dollar traded for 360 yen officially and up to 400 yen in unofficially)  The display & demonstration caused quite a stir of excitement.  The official wanted the washer shown to bigger crowds.

Thus the miniature Japan-made product was selected as an item to be high-lighted for Jack Paar’s “Tonight” TV Talk Show. I didn’t have a chance to watch my presentation but my friend who took the picture told me that “a small, little Japanese man brought a small, little hand-operated washer and in just 30 seconds entertained the audience, etc. etc.” During his one hour talk show, Jack Paar got lots of laugh whenever he demonstrated my product to the viewers..

[At the same Fair, close to my booth, TOYOTA displayed its first export model, the 1960 “Corona,” asking for about $1,200 dollars, FOB Japan but no one seemed to be interested in the Japanese car at that time.  I purchased a new Corona in 1963 trading in for Toyota’s newer models every three years for both my personal use & for company cars; trucks, station wagons.  (Some time later, I happened to meet my high school classmate. Frankie Sakai, a famous Japanese actor & dramatist. He became well-known for playing the role of YABU-SAN in the movie SHOUGUN.  He confided to me that he was chosen to be the celebrity driver to showcase the Toyota Corona on its first drive from LA to Las Vegas, but it was not a success because the engine overheated midway!  He found it hard to believe that Toyota would come to be a world-leading auto company. His favorite car was a Rolls-Royce two door sports model (limited production of 12).  I arranged the Los Angeles purchase & export to Japan for him in 1988.(Including freight, import duty & other expenses, it cost him $250,000(at 135 yen rate) rather than the $400.000 it would have cost had he bought it through the dealer/importer in Japan.)]

But back to the TV story.  Because of Jack Parr Show publicity, many entrepreneurs became  interested in the mini-washer and offered me exclusive agreements. I could not easily communicate with the manufacturer due to the time-zone differences & costly telephone or cable during 60’s. I dutifully forwarded all contacts to the manufacturer since I still had 11 months to fulfill in New York as a government delegate.  The manufacturer selected its own export agent in Tokyo and shipped about 1000 units to New York and an unknown number to Europe. Sad to say, I was not given a share in the profits even though the KAMOME washers were an overnight export success. (this manufacturer went bankrupt after 15 years or so)

However, after I returned to Japan I made a great success exporting almost 10,000 units to Switzerland during 1961-64 as another maker had a 2nd right to this patent. My product was a larger sized, upgraded model named “PET”.  We exported the “PET Washer” under buyer’s brand, “Mondial” and won all the patent challenges from the former manufacturer. In 1963, the owners of the PET washer factory, a Mr. & Mrs. Horikawa, sponsored me and paid all my travel expenses for an around-the world trip as their guide & interpreter.  We visited the owner of “Mondial” in Switzerland and continued travel through Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Italy, France, Germany, Holland, England and then New York. On our way back to Japan we stopped in Honolulu. Unfortunately, in late 1964, the owner of “Mondial” (a rich but small company, with only one lady-secretary who spoke English) passed away suddenly, and thus ended our export business. Unfortunately we could not export any to the US market.  However, this story is not ended.  After the patent was expired, probably in late 1980’s or early 1990’s, some American businessman copied it with plastic material and called his product “Wonder Wash” in US ($19.95 – 39.95) & “Super Wash” in Japan(Y13,500 or abut $120).  Their ad in Japanese new papers (in 1997) say that it sells more than a million units worldwide.

Recalling my experience with the popular mini-washer, it is my last goal to find a suitable successor for my Kamado business.  Although I have exported over 60,000 Kamados. I envision a successor who could handle thousands and thousands of units after I pass the baton to him.  I believe someone can create better merchandising through modern internet techniques, even sell better service, give better price than any other competitors while maintaining the traditional quality. I see the Kamado as a suitable candidate for growth & development and I believe Imperial Kamado is a “FOREVER” product.

(Thank you for reading this long epistle to its bitter end.)

Makoto Nagaoka