Niwaki comes from husband and wife Jake and Keiko. Almost everything in the range is stuff the founders use themselves. On Jake's first day of pine pruning in Osaka, he was given a pair of garden scissors, still sharp as anything, more than a decade later. Brother-in-law Haruyasu bought Jake his first pair of Japanese shears, and he's rarely used anything else since. Keiko uses her garden scissors in the house, for cutting flowers (she never cleans them, they go rusty, and Jake has to revive them, but they're still working). Grandpa reaches for his trusty pruning saw when he wanders off to reap havoc in the woodland.

The tagline started off as Tripod Ladders and Fine Pruning Tools from Japan, then they added the Other Great Stuff, and now they've reached the point where the Tripod Ladders and Fine Pruning Tools doesn't quite say it all, as the range expands into new areas and simply 'Great Stuff From Japan' sums it up rather well. That's what it is: great stuff, from Japan.