Textiles & Dyeing
Woven brocade, hand-painted kimono silk, indigo-dyed cloth and island tsumugi — Japan's textile towns each guard a technique centuries in the making. This is where the country's cloth is truly made.
Nishijin Weaving
For 1,200 years Kyoto's weavers have made the gold-threaded brocade of kimono and obi. A single Nishijin obi can take months and thousands of warp threads.
Kaga Yūzen
Hand-painted kimono dyeing in five refined colours, famous for realistic flowers and leaves — even painted 'insect-bitten' to capture nature exactly as it is.
Awa Indigo
Japan's indigo capital, where 'Japan Blue' is fermented from sukumo leaves in the old way. The deep, living blue of everything from work clothes to festival cloth.
Kiryū Textiles
Called 'the Nishijin of the east,' Kiryū has woven silk for over 1,300 years. Its jacquard looms still make the figured silks behind kimono, obi and fine cloth.
Kurume Kasuri
Indigo cotton woven from pre-dyed threads so the pattern blurs softly at the edges — the signature of kasuri ikat. Dreamed up by a teenage girl in 1800s Fukuoka, now a national craft of everyday cloth.
Ryūkyū Bingata
Okinawa's dazzling resist-dyeing, bright with tropical colour under the southern sun. Once worn by Ryūkyū royalty, its fish, flowers and waves are the island kingdom made cloth.
Yūki Tsumugi
A UNESCO silk spun by hand from floss and woven on a back-strap loom — a single kimono bolt can take a year. Softest when old, it is said to be worn in, not worn out, over generations.
Ōshima Tsumugi
Amami's famously fine silk, dyed in iron-rich mud and plant tannin to a deep warm black, then woven into razor-sharp patterns. One of the world's most labour-intensive textiles.
Kōshū Inden
Deerskin smoked and lacquered with raised patterns, worn by samurai as armour trim and now made into supple purses and bags. Yamanashi's signature leather craft, soft yet centuries-durable.