Kyoto, Arashiyama

Arashiyama is a small neighbourhood west of Kyoto, popular with the weekend crowd, and us tourists. This girl has rented the outfit for a few hours, and was having her picture taken by the river. (Note the karate class doing excercises in the water...)

There was a Kimono maker here, and this is one of the Obi (the wide belt) that they had on display

This fellow is painting the design onto the fabric, which has already been dyed, and had the outlines drawn on it. The fabric is held on the frame around him, where it wraps back and forth on rollers. The pattern is designed individually by the artist (this fellow) in consultation with the customer. Note the large library of books of Japanese classical art behind him, used for inspiration.

The artist was willing to stop and answer my questions (translated through Yuko), and here he's showing us the lines that were drawn onto the fabric with glue by an apprentice. Apparently this is a dying art, as the apprentices are fewer every year.

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