THE BUTLER

THE BUTLER is the butler service the All Japan Butler Association operates itself. The association raises butlers, measures them against a standard and awards them rank; yet without somewhere for those butlers to work, a certificate is no more than paper. So the association built, with its own hands, the desk that joins people who wish to request a butler with the butlers it has certified. That desk is THE BUTLER.

What matters to me as head is that this desk is not an agency. THE BUTLER's butlers move by the association's manners, are bound by its confidentiality and discipline, and if anything happens in the field, the association answers for it. For the client, it is not a contract with one individual but the association's own standard coming into the house.

—Not a business of lending people

Households are not the only setting. Around an executive, at business receptions, on anniversaries and ceremonies, the places where a butler is useful are wider than most people imagine. THE BUTLER arranges that breadth into five levels and four specialisms so that even a first-time client can choose.

Readers of Butler Bell sometimes take THE BUTLER for Butler Bell's own company. Strictly, that is not so: the operator is the association, and I am involved as its head and as one of its butlers. I would like it understood first that this is not one man's shop but the service of a body with a 135-year standard.

—The desk is part of the work

There is a second reason the association keeps the desk itself. The first thing a prospective client meets is not the butler but the desk. If the desk answers carelessly, no butler who arrives afterwards, however fine, can recover that first impression. So the people who sit at THE BUTLER's desk know the association's manners. How the telephone is answered, how quickly a reply goes out, which words are chosen when asking a question — the desk, too, is part of a butler's work.

One more point, because it is easily misread. THE BUTLER does not lend out people. A butler arrives carrying the association's standard and then works to the rules of that particular house. The same butler moves differently in a different home. One form, as many expressions of it as there are houses — that is what the association takes a butler's work to be.

THE BUTLER's official site shows the name, face, rank and strongest settings of every butler on its roster. I have described this as the age in which butlers are chosen. I want to end the era of asking for a butler without knowing who will come. Compatibility matters as much as skill, and it can only be judged once you have seen a face and a record.

A butler you have named sits down with you before the engagement. The household's rules, forms of address, what you would rather not have done: everything heard here goes into the butler's ledger and is carried forward to the next engagement. Naming is not a single choice but the beginning of a relationship with that butler.

—Chosen by their own words

Where no name is given, the association selects a butler to suit the setting and the level; even then, the name and face are always sent in advance. At THE BUTLER, no one sees their butler's face for the first time when they open the door.

Beside each butler's rank, the public roster shows the settings they are strongest in and a few words in their own voice. I set great store by those words. The association can write a photograph's caption and a record, but only the person can write the words. Whether there is one sentence that makes a client think this is the person I want decides, I believe, half of compatibility.

—Grade is not a ranking

To those hesitating over a choice I suggest choosing by occasion rather than by grade. A higher grade is not always the better fit. For a few hours of service at table, a butler who has worked that particular occasion many times will be the smoother hand. Grade indicates the breadth a butler can carry; it is not a ranking that guarantees the day itself.

The All Japan Butler Association was founded in 1890 and runs the training, certification and corporate seminars for butlers, as well as THE BUTLER itself. That the place of training (the Japan Butler Academy), the place of recognition (the association) and the place of work (THE BUTLER) stand under one roof is the foundation of this service.

Problems seen in the field return to the association and are reflected in the criteria and the school's courses. If a client says a butler talks too much, it does not end as a word to one individual: the way timing is taught is itself reviewed. For the association, THE BUTLER is also a laboratory of butler culture.

—Three stumbles means the teaching

I am head of the association and, at the same time, one of THE BUTLER's butlers. Because the same person trains and works, no gap is left between what is taught in the classroom and what the field demands.

That the association holds the working side shows itself in how quickly the textbooks are revised. If the same stumble appears three times in the field, it is not carelessness in one person but a gap in the teaching. I try not to wait for the third before sending it back to the academy's curriculum.

Being an undertaking of the association also shows in the number of butlers we hold. More people would mean more engagements accepted, but there is a limit to how fast numbers can grow while the grades of certification hold. That is why THE BUTLER cannot always take the date a client hopes for. I regard not chasing numbers as a promise rather than an inconvenience.

The greatest worry when asking for a butler for the first time is not knowing what to ask for or how. THE BUTLER resolves that with a sequence. First, tell the desk on the official site the setting and the date. No special vocabulary is needed: "three parties of guests on one day, and I would like the serving done" is enough.

Second, the association's coordinator proposes a level and a specialism and shows you candidate butlers. Third, you meet the butler you have named and pass on the household's rules. Fourth, the day itself: the butler arrives before the appointed hour, checks the house, and takes up position at the door.

—What to prepare on the day

After the day, the association sends a short enquiry. Telling us not only what went well but what troubled you ensures the next engagement is better than this one.

At any of the four stages you are free to stop. Sometimes, at the planning meeting, a client says they would rather not go ahead after all. I welcome that. Welcoming a butler is a decision the household makes, and stopping once is better than arriving at the day unconvinced. Being easy to decline is part of what makes a desk a good desk.

There is, in truth, almost nothing to prepare for the day. There is no need to clean before the butler arrives. A butler does not come to an ordered house; the house becomes ordered because he comes — so receive him as the house always is. The only two things we ask beforehand are which places should not be touched and which rooms should not be entered.

THE BUTLER's butlers dress according to the etiquette the association supervises: a black morning coat with a plain black long tie for day duty, a tailcoat with a white bow tie by night. White gloves are the promise made whenever silver and the table are touched. Attire is not for display; it is the sign by which a client sees at a glance that this person can be trusted.

The same holds for conduct. How a door is opened, how a cup is set down, the interval before speaking: all are taught to the association's standard and pass its examination. Whoever the butler may be, you are received with the same conduct, because that standard exists.

—The shoes are what is seen last

The part of the attire most closely observed is, in fact, the shoes. The cut of a coat cannot be judged from across a room, but the state of a pair of shoes carries in the instant someone draws near. Association butlers check their shoes before leaving because they know the last point of the attire is at the feet.