Yoshida & Co. Bookbinds Its 90-Year History Using the Same Thread That Sews Its Bags

Yoshida Kaban marks its 90th anniversary with a visual book documenting the brand's craft and history

The book is bound with the Japanese wa-toji method and stitched using the actual thread from its bag production

Two editions arrive, one built from TANKER fabric and one wrapped in cloth-covered board

Yoshida & Co., the maker behind PORTER, is releasing the YOSHIDA & Co. 90 Anniversary BOOK, a visual book commemorating its 90th year in business. Weighted toward the brand’s work over the past decade, the volume treats its own construction as an extension of the craftsmanship it documents.

The making of the book is the clearest statement of intent. It is bound using wa-toji, the traditional Japanese technique of stitching paper together with needle and thread, and the sewing yarn is the same thread Yoshida actually uses to assemble its bags. That choice carries the brand’s obsession with handwork out of the workshop and into the object itself. Two bindings are offered: a Collector’s Edition finished in TANKER fabric, and a Library Edition given a rugged cover of cloth-wrapped heavy board.

The contents track where the brand has been recently. The book devotes pages to ALL NEW TANKER, the project that reworked PORTER‘s signature TANKER series into a version made from 100 percent plant-based nylon, and it walks through the full slate of items issued for the anniversary. It also captures the exhibition Every day is a new beginning, staged at Kudan House, giving the recent milestones a place on the page.

From there it reaches back to the origin. The volume collects historical material tracing the brand’s roots across nine decades, including rare episodes about founder Yoshida Kichizo, the tools he favored, and the handcart used in the earliest days of the operation. Yoshida Kaban was established in 1935, which places this anniversary in 2026. Together, the recent projects and the founding relics frame the book as a bridge between the label’s present output and the workshop mindset it started with.

The YOSHIDA & Co. 90 Anniversary BOOK releases August 15.