Among a variety of fireworks, I dedicate myself to the manufacture of bottle rockets. The greatest excitement is felt in various colors of fireworks. Brilliant, shiny and clear color is regarded the best. Colors in fireworks are determined by how chemical compounds and metal powder are mixed. Pyrotechnic stars are the source of flash in fireworks. In one round shell, in the case of #4 size, there are packaged numerous stars of 12 mm in diameter. A pyrotechnic star is a mass of powder shaped into a ball with a core of merely 2mm in diameter, on which gun powder is located around in even pitches.
When powder for 1mm length is done, wait until it gets completely dry before beginning the next 1mm step. It is time-consuming and requires lots of patience. This manufacturing process of stars is exercised in dry season of autumn through winter. After stars are made completely, they are evenly located on "tamakawa" (cardboard-made semi-spherical packages) and "wariyaku" (breaking powder) is filled in-between. Inspired by the image how I want it to look like on the sky, I determine the locations of powder. Packaging stars inside, I paste pieces of paper in layers on shells one by one, putting a pause for drying when one round (three pieces) is done, and this process repeats five times (in the case of #4 size of 12mm diameter, and larger sizes needs more) to complete shells.
The production capacity of fireworks would be somewhere around 20,000 to 25,000 at best in a year. The manual process of making one #4 size shell of 12cm in diameter lasts for one week. Such a laborious process of making it by hands is hidden behind beautiful flashes and sounds of explosion of pyrotechnic shells in a blink of an eye.

Pyrotechnists and craftsmen have got to do much more than just making pyrotechnic shells. Shooting off a firework needs skill and technique, which can only be acquired through years' training. To set off a firework after another in succession, a launching bottle and blasting fuses are operated in a synchronized manner through electric ignition. The timing of fire reaching a shell is controlled by means of coordination of blasting fuses and electric ignition. A moment of tranquility after successive shooting will burst into another flash of fireworks show. It is an excitement to move us rhythmically, which is the art realized by craftsmen's skill making fireworks exhibition even more tempting.
In recent years, fireworks events are organized less frequently, and imported fireworks at lower prices are more commonly available. There are fewer Japanese pyrotechnic craftsmen active domestically, and its number has reduced to about 120 only today. It would possibly be explained by the difficulty for new comers to obtain license, or the time-consuming process to get trained on the labor-taking manufacturing job.

In such circumstances, I began "Hanabishow.com" five years ago to disseminate the beauty of Japanese fireworks. This is intended for an opportunity of a personal fireworks show. Even before it, it had been in my mind that there could be wide-open opportunities for people to enjoy fireworks shows. One day, I was approached by a family's request to hold one to celebrate their grandmother's 60th birthday. After careful planning of this surprise event, I presented a show to them, where I was impressed by the joy of the family who were satisfied to see the grandmother feeling much delighted at it. It was the beginning of this business to me. Making pyrotechnic shells is a tough job, but, is pleasure too when knowing that people's dream is put in it. In the past five years since then, I could help them deliver their messages on various occasions of marriage proposals, birthdays, or parents' celebrations of 60th birthday.
Fireworks burst across the sky at night and disappear from our eyes in seconds, but leave behind lasting impression in the mind of everyone who looks up at the sky to view them. It's my dream to continue making pyrotechnic shells which will evoke your unforgettable memories. "Putting my heart and soul into a round shell" is a motto when I am working on it.