Fumio Usui, a 65-year-old man devoted to making artificial legs, is among the 150 people with outstanding skills selected by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry as "contemporary craftsmen" for 2020.
Shirai of Suginami Ward, Tokyo, has manufactured artificial legs for Japanese entrants in five consecutive Paralympics since the ones held in Sydney in 2000. "I have tackled the job by putting my heart into enabling people to enrich their lives from the moment they begin to wear prosthetic legs," Shirai said.
He was introduced to his current vocation at the age of 28. He moved to Tokyo from his hometown of Maebashi City, Gunma Prefecture, to study at university, but later quit because felt he was unable to find anything worthwhile that he could throw himself into. After a string of various part-time jobs, including working as a construction site worker, a security guard and a bartender, he ended up enrolling into a vocational training school. It was there he came across a course in something that would go on to shape his life: prosthetics. He recalled his cheerful and gentle sixth-grade homeroom teacher who happened to wear a prosthetic leg. Through this, Shirai had a sort of fondness for the field.
Since then, he has produced and repaired more than 3,000 prosthetic legs as part of requests for not only athletic purposes but also for those from people who wanted to "wear miniskirts and heels."
According to him, an ideal type of prosthetic leg is "one that is like it has blood flowing through it." To produce an item that's so comfortable that the user can somehow temporarily forget that they are even wearing a prosthetic, the integrity of the socket which surrounds the cut section is crucial. He makes prosthetic legs according to a complete made-to-order system in which the personal character, lifestyle and objectives of each customer are taken into consideration.
After being able to see a once truant student able to advance to high school and student once overcome with depression become able to run once more through the use of prosthetic legs, Usui has said that he found his job to be worthwhile and does it because it "is more related to human development than it is to just manufacturing."
There was a period this year in which he was unable to directly meet with his clients that live in regional areas because of the novel coronavirus outbreak. However, he did counsel them over the phone and via social media. He expressed his determination to continue to listen to those in need and strive to train up-and-coming prosthetists.
"Though I'm 65 now, I would like to continue my work with even more vigor than before."
Among the selected 150 craftsmen are 137 men 13 women. The award ceremony was held Monday. The oldest award receipient was Chizuko Takahashi, 96, a dyeing and weaving designer from Fukui Prefecture, while the youngest were Kenichi Ando of Ibaraki Prefecture who is an optical instrument adjuster, and Shigeki Matsuoka of Tokyo who is a furniture upholsterer, both at 43 years old.
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