SOMEKOBO TSUKURUYA
Making kimonos as an everyday wardrobe item
A Yuzen craftsman creating exquisite designs that reflect
a deep understanding of what the customer wants
Somekobo Tsukuruya specializes in Tegaki (handpainted) Yuzen, one of Japan’s traditional dyeing crafts for painting patterns of plants and landscapes onto cloth using a resist paste to prevent the colors from mixing. Unlike Kata Yuzen that uses stencils of carved washi paper for the dyeing process, each step in Tegaki Yuzen is done by hand; so it’s possible to create a truly one-of-a-kind kimono that is unique in the world. Tokyo Tegaki Yuzen is one of the three
central schools of Yuzen, along with Kyo Yuzen and Kaga Yuzen. This particular form of dyeing has its roots in the merchant class culture of the Edo period. Noted for its chic yet retrained use of color, and the freehand style of Tokyo Tegaki Yuzen allows the craftsmen to directly express themselves in the designs.
After working at a publishing company for several years, Makiko Kuwabara, the owner and manager of Tsukuruya decided to follow the path of learning Yuzen. She underwent seven years of training before she was able to become an independent craftsman in 2009. Kuwabara now works alone from her studio at Sakura city in Chiba prefecture; it’s
just her completing all the processes to create a Yuzen item. This allows her to talk to her customers about what they really want, so she can create a bespoke item for them. Kuwabara is in charge of all aspects of creating a Yuzen item – even delivering it herself to the customer. She excels in providing her customers with detailed, personalized and courteous service from start to finish. Kuwabara wears a kimono daily for many hours, so she’s developed an innate
sense for coordinating the elements of a kimono, including the obi (sash) and other accessories. This enables her to create designs that are notable for their versatility in styling a complete kimono outfit.
Tsukuruya’s main customer group are women, and as Kuwabara and her customers generally age at the same pace, she’s able to present them with designs and patterns to suit their particular stage in life. This sense of both the crafstman and customer sharing the enchantment of Tegaki Yuzen kimono is another of Tsukuruya’s strengths.
Transformation from an office lady to a yuzen craftsman
Yuzen dyeing is one of Japan’s signature dyeing techniques that is applied on kimonos and other items. Kimonos
can roughly be grouped into two types: dyed (somé) kimonos made from white cloth dyed in various colours and
patterns, and woven (ori) kimonos made from cloth woven using dyed threads. Although tie-dyeing (shiborizomé) and embroidery (shishu) have been the main techniques used to create patterns on kimonos, the emergence of yuzen has created a new approach that uses a resist paste to stop the colors from mixing as the craftsman draws patterns of plants, landscapes and other scenery onto the cloth.
Yuzen dyeing itself has two main methods. Kata Yuzen uses stencils of carved washi paper for the dyeing process, which makes it suitable for use in mass production. In Tegaki Yuzen though, which is the approach used at Tsukuruya, artisans hand draw and dye patterns onto each piece of cloth. This laborious and time-consuming technique of hand drawing produces truly unique and original kimonos.
There are three central schools of Yuzen originating from different regions in Japan. Kyo Yuzen is noted for its use of distinctive and vivid colors favored by Kyoto’s nobility, while Kaga Yuzen from Ishikawa prefecture is characterized by its graphic designs of plants and flowers. Then there is Tokyo (or Edo Yuzen) with its chic use of color and freehand style that allows the craftsmen to directly express their unique sense in the designs. Dubbed the Top Three Yuzen, each of these three styles of Yuzen are intricately connected with their region of origin. Among the many artisans who have chosen to follow the path of Yuzen in the footsteps of their ancestors, Kuwabara is the first generation artist of the Tsukuruya studio she founded. So one could say Tsukuruya is Kuwabara’s original brand of Tegaki Yuzen.
Kuwabara grew up in the lush natural environment of Sado Island, which locates in Japan Sea with a population of around 60,000. Having earnestly studied woodblock prints and Japanese calligraphy since a young age, she moved to Tokyo as a university student to major in Japanese calligraphy at the Faculty of Education of Tokyo Gakugei University. After graduating in 1997, Kuwabara worked at a publishing company for about five years, where she edited textbooks and other publications. It was around then she started to learn how to wear a kimono, which led to her developing an interest in the process of making a kimono. Captivated by this essential item in any Japanese woman’s wadrobe, Kuwabara refects on that time. “I had started learning how to dress myself in a kimono, and I liked wearing it as well.
This also got me interested in kimono itself as a craft which motivated myself to be involved in making it as well.”
The timing was also right for Kuwabara to quit her job at the publishing company and embark on the path of studying Yuzen. Many of Japan’s traditional crafts companies, including Tegaki Yuzen, are family run businesses that have been passed down through generations; so it took some time for Kuwabara to make the decision to start studying this technique on her own. Fortunately, she was able to find a studio willing to take her on as an apprentice, and she learnt the craft under the tutelage of Minoru and Tamae Ueda. As the only apprentice there, Kuwabara spent seven years at the studio studying the fundamentals of Tegaki Yuzen, but also being busy with other daily chores from early morning to midnight. She reminisces about that precious period as being a kind of “life training” for her.
Kuwabara’s training started with learning how to trace the master’s sketches and designs in pencil in order to copy their lines. Even studying a single pattern can be a challenge due to the various drawing styles and forms used by each Yuzen school; but this was also how she was able to learn the subtleties of Yuzen. By 2009 Kuwabara had acquired enough skills to work independently as a Yuzen craftsman, and in 2010 she set up her combined home and studio Tsukuruya in Sakura City, Chiba prefecture (in the outskirts of Tokyo).
In her studio she has various sketches and designs and a temple, which is an adjustable stretcher used to keep the cloth stretched flat during various processes such as shinshi (stretching out the cloth on tenterhooks), tegakizome and hikizome (hand and brush dyeing), and ji-ire (basecoat application). It has sharp prongs at each end to attach the cloth onto. She uses an Aobana-eki colorant (obtained from the petals of the tsuyukasa blue dayflower) on the cloth to draw rough sketches; the color disappears with water, so it’s easy to make corrections or adjustments to the sketches. Kuwabara also has an assortment of brushes for painting on the colors, and itome nori, an amber-colored resist paste which stops the yuzen dyes from mixing into each other. She fills the itome nori into a cone, and carefully squeezes it out as she closely follows the contour lines of the sketched patterns. Her other tools include cones for itome nori, and color samples for checking combinations and hues of various colors. Kuwabara uses silk as her base cloth, although the silk itself comes in various patterns and weaves; so she buys and sorts the silk according to the type of pattern or kimono she wants to create.
One of the issues facing all traditional crafts in Japan is a declining demand for the finished products, and the
subsequent dwindling number of associated industries and artisans that are carrying on these traditional techniques and creating the required tools. For instance, there are fewer people making base materials, such as brushes, base fabric, the resist paste used in the ji-ire (basecoat application) and fuse nori-oki (resist paste application) processes; this impact is clearly visible in the industry.
Kuwabara does everything on her own. She drafts the yuzen design and refines it through ongoing discussions with the customer, so she can check if it is what they want; she even delivers the finished product to the customer herself. Kuwabara prefers to sell her yuzen items at pop-up events at department stores and other retail and wholesale outlets.
Kuwabara is also focused on broadening the range of her work. She has started teaching yuzen and how to wear a kimono in Tokyo city and Chiba prefecture, and recently she has been taking part in traditional craft exhibitions including local town revitalization events.
Handcraft creation inspired from nature and seasonal features
Kuwabara has been working alone every since she started Tsukuruya. This means she does everything herself –
from creating yuzen items to selling them, running workshops and completing various other tasks. Tegaki yuzen is an extremely labor-intensive and time-consuming process in which everything is done by hand.
There are 13 steps in tegaki yuzen.
Coming up with ideas and sketches of designs, and selecting the cloth to use.
Drawing the actual size patterns based on the designs.
Copying the patterns from full-scale drawing onto the actual cloth (using Aobana-eki colorant for the sketches).
Tracing the patterns on the cloth using resist paste. (itome nori-oki)
Fixing the paste on the cloth (ji-ire)
Mixing the dyes, and painting them onto the patterns.
Steaming the cloth in high temperatures to fix the dyes (mushi)
Applying resist paste to the patterns to cover them (fuse nori-oki)
Paste Funori (Endocladiaceae paste) and bean juice to fabric in order to make ji-zome process qualified (second ji-ire)
Dyeing the background (non-patterned sections) using a big brush (ji-zome)
Steaming the cloth again.
Washing the cloth to remove all of the resist paste (mizumoto)
Steaming the cloth to remove wrinkles from it, and then straightening and adjusting its width (yunoshi)
Finishing the cloth by correcting the colors, and decorating it with gold leaf/ powder and/or embroidery and other embellishments.
Unlike Kyo Yuzen in which the work for each process is divided among different craftsmen, all processes in Tokyo Tegaki Yuzen - apart from mizumoto (washing off the resist paste and excess dye) and yunoshi – are done by one person.
When making Yuzen, the craftsman mixes the dye in hot water each time in order to achieve the right color, achieving the right balance of color ratio. The humidity, temperature and other factors on that day can subtly change the color, which means the color could only made on that certain time. Also, the dye needs to be constantly adjusted to keep the right condition, so it is imperative the craftsman is completely focused on the work in order to use as much of the dye as required; the painting process really tests the skills of a Yuzen craftsmen.
Creating exquisite designs
while also teaching Yuzen how to wear a kimono
The kimono was one of the main clothes worn by Japanese people during the Edo period; however, the influx of
Western culture since the Meiji period has made Western-style clothing the mainstream in Japan, and these days
there are fewer opportunities to wear a kimono. Purchasing a good-quality kimono can be quite expensive, so many people regard it as something that will last a lifetime. But Kuwahara considers a kimono to be part of woman’s daily wardrobe, just like Western clothes.
Kuwabara herself became interested in Yuzen when she started learning how to wear a kimono and had more
opportunities to actually wear one. She believes it’s important for her customers to also first become familiar with a kimono again by learning how to wear one. It’s easy to think that wearing a kimono as ordinary clothes is too much for most people; but Kuwabara thinks kimono is ideal as fashionable daily wear, as it does not have much change in trend and style.
Kuwabara makes kimonos mostly for women. She often wears a kimono herself, so when she is making one it’s
easier for her to consider aspects such as coordinating the kimono and obi. For instance, if she is asked to make a kimono to match an obi a customer already has, she will suggest patterns and designs with colors and elements that will create a complementary balance between the kimono and obi. Kuwabara also keeps in constant contact with her customers to make sure she understands what they really want, and then creates a kimono that embodies their preferences and requests.
Introducing Yuzen to the world with a new range of items
Kuwabara draws inspiration for her creations from the nature surrounding her studio, which is also her home. So she gets ideas when she’s gardening and from the greenery around her, especially the leaves of various trees. Her works are also strongly influenced by the changing seasons, as seen in the motifs of autumn leaves and other seasonal plants and flowers.
Although Kuwabara’s work centers on making kimonos, obis and other related items, recently she has been receiving more requests to incorporate fresh ideas into her range. So she has been developing new methods and trying out innovative ideas for preserving and using the traditional techniques of Yuzen, and expanding her range to include tote bags, coin purses, scarves, and other everyday fashion items. Kuwabara is hoping to launch this new line of Tegaki Yuzen items in the overseas market, where there is no custom of wearing a kimono. She is excited about elevating the techniques and expressions of Tegaki Yuzen into a Western context and marketing her items overseas; and so are we.