Our Story
WAZA began with our own travels to Japan, which started in 2004. What we found there – the care taken over ordinary objects, the quiet pride of small workshops, the sense that good things were made to last – stayed with us, and after return visits we registered Waza Imports (Pty) Ltd in Cape Town in 2014 to bring some of it home.
Our first visit to Japan. Tokyo, 2004
WAZA is a specialist importer, retailer and wholesaler of quality Japanese goods, built around a (s)low consumption idea: a considered shopping experience where the best of Japan and South Africa meet.
Our mission is to celebrate Japanese craftsmanship. The goods we sell are chosen for their design, their durability and their everyday usefulness. WAZA is represented in Tokyo, and together with our Japanese colleagues we work directly with businesses and craftspeople across Japan to source pieces that can be cherished for years and decades. You will find us online and at WAZA Japan Store, our shop at 201 Bree Street, Cape Town.
Beyond the shop, WAZA is also a way into Japan itself: small-group visits with WAZA & Friends, one-on-one Japan travel advice, talks, tastings and Japanese-themed events, bespoke and B2B custom orders, and traditional tatami for the home. Feel free to browse the menu above to read about all of these.
The WAZA business philosophy
Our approach is best captured by one of our Japanese suppliers, who insists that his thirty-five years of honing his craft pale beside the fifty-odd years of his peers. "I am still learning," he says. That suits us. We believe in a gentler way of doing business, built on learning, human contact and personal experience, and we look for products that not only carry their own story, but go on to make new ones.
Where possible, we visit our suppliers in person before we work together, building relationships on mutual trust and respect. Botha runs WAZA day to day as its managing director, while Hilda - as the muse and the eye behind many of our finds – contributes alongside a career of her own. We are always researching new ideas and new makers alongside our network of partners. If you are looking for something from Japan that we do not stock, please contact us with your request.
The meaning of WAZA
Where Japan (和 – WA) and South Africa (ZA) meet through skill (技 – WAZA).
"WAZA" plays on two Japanese readings: the kanji "wa" (和) and the word "waza" (技). The kanji wa (和) carries the idea of an intrinsic Japaneseness. It is most often translated as harmony or peace, a sense that reaches back to AD 604 and the first article of Prince Shōtoku's Seventeen-Article Constitution, which opens "harmony is to be valued". It describes both things that are uniquely Japanese and an approach to life – think of words such as wagyu (Japanese beef) or washi (Japanese paper). We use this kanji in our logo to show how we connect Japan (WA) with South Africa (ZA) through trade and travel.
The word waza, written 技, means technique or skill. Everything we sell shows some element of skill, whether through traditional craftsmanship, or through contemporary innovation applied to traditional design. We are especially drawn to the Japanese idea of monozukuri (ものづくり), which translates as the art, science and craft of making things, and which lives in small-workshop manufacturing.
よろしくお願いします!
Hilda and Botha Kruger
WAZA Founders
