Arakawa's Artisans
Arakawa Ward Traditional Crafts Preservation Society
Artisanal Skills Still Passed Down Today in Arakawa
Artisanal Skills Still Passed Down Today in Arakawa
Hand-painted Yuzen
A type of patterned dyeing that developed during the Edo period. It is said to have originated from fan paintings created by Miyazaki Yuzen-sai of Kyoto in the mid-Edo period.
This hand-painted dyeing technique is characterized by the use of stencil painting and paste-resist methods—such as the “tsutsugaki” technique and the use of toothpick-applied paste—to apply color to specific areas. In Edo, influenced by samurai and merchant cultures, designs featuring subdued, muted tones and clean, uncluttered compositions emerged.