Making Party Masks in Japan

Making Party Masks

Located in the suburbs of Omiya, Saitama Prefecture, Ogawa Studio is a small brick building that resembles a stylish apartment building rather than a small manufacturer. Everything from the creating of the rubber to the packaging is all done on this premise.

Hirohisa Ogawa is the third generation president of this family business. Tracing the history of this small company reflects the trend and changes of small manufacturers in Japan. Originally, as Ogawa Rubber Co., Hirohisa’s grandfather garnered production skills and machinery to make latex balloons. As a forerunner, it was a prosperous business. But in the postwar period, the manufacturing of balloons became more widespread. In the 1960s, Hirohisa’s father made the decision to change the direction of the company and specialize only in producing rubber masks. “At that time, Japan was seen globally as a cheap, reliable source of manufacturing and we were approached by an American company to make these types of masks. We specialized in fulfilling their orders and our business was based on exports,” explained Ogawa. “However, by 1980s, the domestic market grew and cheaper manufacturing options were available in other countries. Our sales are now primarily made in Japan.”

Indeed, from the 1980s, party goods for adults became an expanding market in Japan. While party goods for children remain a small market compared to many countries, silly props for Japanese style “drinking parties” are still popular. General goods stores like LOFT and TOKYU HANDS are major outlets while the Don Quijote chain is the largest purveyors of Ogawa masks.

Ogawa Studio has a display of their past product lines. Prominently on display is the rack of Japanese prime ministers. “We sold more Barack Obama masks than the last seven prime Japanese prime ministers combined,” Ogawa comments with a wry smile. “It’s quite fun creating politician masks. We never have to pay licensing fees to make them so the investment is low. It takes about four days between a new appointment and our finished product. There is always media attention when we introduce our newest prime minister mask.”

Ogawa also makes masks based on famous animation and manga characters. Some are custom-ordered by cosplay (costume play) fans. There are trends but at Ogawa, Ultraman remains the best-seller character brand.

Indeed, the popularity of rubber masks does reflect certain cultural and social trends of the time. For example, last year there was a trend where an anonymous donor provided free schoolbags to orphanages signing his name as “Naoto Date,” the name of a professional wrestler in a famous animation called “Tiger Mask.” The media coverage of this action propelled a flurry of copycat donors across the nation. Many wore Tiger Mask costumes to bring cash or presents to orphanages and city offices. “We sold 10 times as many Tiger Mask products last year. There was even a rumor that I was the original donor,” Ogawa says chuckling. “Unfortunately our business is not that prosperous.”