What is Yuzen?

The technique of dyeing has been handed down for more than 1000 years, but yuzen-style resist dyeing is said to have been established by Yuzensai Miyazaki (active between 1688-1703), who was well known in Kyoto for his artwork on folding fans.

Silk-weaving families can be traced to the 15th century in the famous Nishijin weaving center of Kyoto, where elegant fabrics worn by the Emperor and the aristocracy were produced. In the 17th century, designs on textiles were applied using stencils and rice paste, in the yuzen or paste-resist method of dyeing.

Profile: Shin’ichiro Minami

Born and raised in Kyoto Prefecture, Minami apprenticed in Tokyo under Shusui Tanaka in the yuzen tradition of silk resist dyeing. After completing his studies, he moved to Kyoto City to live and work as an independent yuzen artisan.

Over his 45-year career, Minami has been awarded prizes for his work from Hermes Magazine and various other organizations for his contribution to traditional Japanese design.

Minami has also featured on NHK and has exhibited many locations worldwide, including Paris and Shanghai. He is also passionate about promoting the preservation of Kyoto machiya townhouses.

What is a Machiya?

Machiya are traditional wooden townhouses found throughout Japan and typified in the historical capital of Kyoto. Machiya developed through the Edo period (1600~1868) into the Meiji period (1868~1912) and were primarily housing for merchants and artisans/craftsmen.

The typical Kyoto machiya is a long wooden home with narrow street frontage, stretching deep into the city block and often containing a courtyard garden (tsuboniwa). The front room traditionally served as the retail or shop space.

The sliding doors provide a great degree of versatility; doors can be opened, closed or removed entirely to alter the number, size and shape of rooms to suit the needs of the moment.

Machiya and the Environment

Machiya design addresses climate concerns. Kyoto can be quite cold in winter, and extremely hot and humid in the summer. Multiple layers of sliding doors (fusuma and shoji) are used to moderate the temperature inside; closing all the screens in the winter offers some protection from the cold, while opening them all in the summer offers some respite from the heat and humidity.

Machiya homes traditionally also made use of different types of screens which would be changed with the seasons; woven bamboo screens used in summer allow air to flow through, but help to block the sun. The open-air garden courtyards likewise aid in air circulation and bring light into the house.

Machiya kitchen and plot size

The doma or toriniwa is an earthen service space that contains the kitchen area and also serves as the passage to the rear of the plot, where storehouses known as kura are found. A hibukuro above the kitchen serves as a chimney, carrying smoke and heat away and as a skylight, bringing light into the kitchen.

The plot’s width was traditionally an index of wealth, and typical machiya plots were only approx. 6 meters (19ft) wide, but about 20 meters (66ft) deep, leading to the nickname unagi no nedoko, or eel beds.

Yuzen techniques

Minami squeezes the paste resist (traditionally made from a mixture of rice paste and gum) through a funnel-shaped container much like a small pastry bag.

After this paste resist dries, he paints the areas on both sides of the lines with brushes, using the desired dye colors. Delicate shaded effects can be created, and the rice paste outlines prevent the dye from seeping into surrounding areas.

Famous designers, such as Hanae Mori, have borrowed extensively from kimono patterns for their collections. In recent years, an elegant, hand-painted yuzen-dyed kimono has become extremely costly, and can run to US$20,000 for a formal garment.