Towel-Dyeing Workshop
HIGHLIGHTS
・Meet an artist in person
・Experience a hands-on workshop in a Japanese household atmosphere
・Step inside a Japanese house, a place most travelers don’t get to visit
・The workshop is fairly easy, so even kids can enjoy it
Meet the Artist: Sumire Shinjo
Sumire was born in Okinawa, and is a graduate of the Musashino Art University Department of
Industrial, Interior, and Craft Design, where she studied textile design and first
encountered woodblock printing and wax dyeing. Her work combines these techniques
for unique, distinctive depictions of motifs like landscapes, plants, and animals.
She has worked at the Kanazawa Utatsuyama Kogei Kobo, and is still active in Kanazawa.
Hands-On Workshop Overview
1. Choose from a selection of tenugui towels pre-dyed with indigo.
2. Apply dye to woodblock stamps made by Sumire, and press onto your tenugui. The stamps feature Kanazawa-themed designs, like geishas, Kenrokuen Garden’s iconic Kotoji stone lantern, yukizuri tree branch snow supports, Tsuzumi-mon Gate, or daruma dolls. Stamp on as many designs as you’d like.
3. After your tenugui is stamped, it will then be dried and ironed to get any wrinkles out, and it’s finished! The workshop has the fun, intimate feel of a short homestay.
Details
Hands-On Workshop Location:
At one of the guest houses we operate, in central Kanazawa (we will show you where it is beforehand)
Time Required: 90 minutes
Group Size: 4–8 people
Price: ¥6,600 per person
Cancelation Policy: No refund for cancelations less than a week before.
(Please note that we may not be able to hold the workshop on certain dates, depending on the artist's schedule.)
Yuzen Dyeing Workshop
Try an Old Traditional Japanese Craft!
1. Use a brush to paint in the dyes, inside the glue outlines of the prepared design.
This workshop uses seven dyes.
You can also mix the dyes to make whatever colors you like.
2. Set the colors using a highly alkaline solution (15 minutes).
3. Wash out the glue from the outlines.
This will leave sharp white outlines between the colored areas.
4. Stitch into a clip-on bow tie or place in a frame.
Groups of up to four are welcome to watch steps 2–4 above if they are interested and have the time.
For groups of five or more, the finishing steps take long enough that the finished items will instead be sent out the following day.
(They will be sent to each guest’s overnight accommodations for the night after.)
If you have time, you are welcome to also look at the artist’s other works.
Workshop Price
Trial Price! Only until the end of February!
¥5,500 per person
(regular price ¥7,700 per person)
Yuzen Dyeing
Yuzen is a traditional technique used to dye fabric for kimonos and other
luxurious garments, creating a design drawn directly onto the fabric in various colors.
The most distinctive feature of Yuzen dyeing is perhaps the use of a glue to create boundaries between dyes,
preventing them from mixing.
This makes it possible to create incredibly fine dyed lines.
Using this glue keeps dyes within very specific boundaries on the fabric,
enabling artisans to create vibrant designs that look almost like paintings.
Meet the Artist: Ai Inoue
This fabric-dyeing professional’s work incorporates Yuzen techniques, ordinarily used to produce fabric for garments like kimonos, alongside the decorative technique known as decalcomania. Her art build on a theme of “the beginning of life.”
This is expressed through such motifs as plants growing, or various forms of underwater life.
She is currently based in Kanazawa.
Nahoko Yamazaki was born in Kanagawa, and graduated from the Joshibi University of Art and Design’s Crafts Program.
