Takada Kozo Shoten was established in 1948 as a manufacturer of products derived from the windmill palm tree - a tall, evergreen palm that has been an important staple of the Kishu region in Wakayama since the Edo period. The bark of the windmill palm tree, or SHURO, has been one of familiar materials to the people of Japan since old times, and its flexible and soft texture has been utilized for brooms and scrub brushes, called "TAWASHI" in Japanese. For some seventy years, TAKADA's artisans have been handcrafting TAWASHI with uniform texture one at a time, using only the finest, carefully-selected materials. In the past, the local industry using the domestic windmill palm is almost discontinued.  However, TAKADA restored traditional Japanese scrub brushes which are made of the bark of the windmill palm tree growing naturally in the KISHU area (Wakayama Prefecture) of Japan. The company began selling shuro tawashi made from high-quality palm bark grown through organic farming methods.