View the piece on NYTimes.com in an article by Stacy Cowley: "6 Entrepreneurship Lessons from Family Businesses" 

The journalism unit of Blue Chalk Media produced “Family Entrepreneurs” in collaboration with The New York Times video department and business desk. The six-part series celebrates a range of family-owned businesses across the United States—from taquerias to hand-sewn bowties, advanced technological helmets to breweries.

This episode, “Balancing Business With Art,” focuses on Miya Shoji, a high-end furniture store that follows a straightforward aesthetic philosophy: the works of nature and aging are more beautiful than the complex designs of man. Hisao Hanafusa, a Japanese-born artist, has been working in his carpentry shop in NYC’s Chelsea since 1961, and things haven’t changed all that much in the past 50 years. But after a stint working as a designer and spending time to find himself, his son Zui joined the business to spend more time with his father and preserve his perhaps antiquated notions of commerce.

“Family Entrepreneurs” is the second major initiative to come from the Blue Chalk journalism unit, designed to report and produce visual journalism with news organizations and knowledge brands.