Ohirune Studio is a small independent studio founded by photographer and filmmaker Taro Otsuka.
It began with a simple habit: noticing the small frustrations hidden inside everyday creative work.
The repetitive steps.
The manual checks.
The awkward workarounds we keep using because “that’s just how it is.”
After years of working that way myself, I started asking a different question:
Does it really have to be this way?
Ohirune Studio builds small tools and software around problems discovered through real creative work.
Not because everything needs to be automated.
Quite the opposite.
Machines should handle the repetitive parts when they can, so people can spend more time on the things that actually need a person.
Making something.
Thinking.
Going outside.
Or doing absolutely nothing.
Ohirune means “nap” in Japanese.
And we don’t believe every minute saved needs to become another minute of work.
Today, Ohirune Studio is still a very small studio, led by Taro and occasionally joined by collaborators when a project calls for it.
We’re building it one problem at a time.
Tools that give time back.
What will you do with the time you get back?