This post is the final one in a series on Sometsukasa Yoshioka, the fifth-generation botanical dyeworks located in Kyoto, Japan, which is under the direction of the master dyer and cultural historian, Sachio Yoshioka.  If you have missed the previous posts, feel free to scroll down to the very first one where I introduce the Yoshioka and offer some context for understanding the importance of this dyeworks.

But today we’ll go shopping.

Yoshioka’s botanically dyed products are  beautiful and available for sale at his small shops in Kyoto and Tokyo–some larger department stores in Japan also sell his work, but the entire line can be seen at his tiny and jewel-like stand- alone stores.  The Kyoto store is located in the Shinmonzen Antique District, in Gion, the famous geisha dsitrict.  The Shinmonzen area is comprised of just a few streets, so you will easily find the shop if you look.

Shown above are ramie cloth cushions dyed in myriad colors; below are silk organza scarves dyed in botanical dyes.  The shop shows beautiful items such as totes and bags in several sizes, gorgeous, simple pouches, coasters, and noren or door coverings.  By all means, go and investigate this amazing little shop where color comes to life and where you will no doubt be seduced into acquiring something for yourself and others.

If you have been following this blog, you will have seen many previous postings on the great botanical dyer of Japan, the Kyoto-based Sachio Yoshioka and his family dyeworks, Sometsukasa Yoshioka.   If you haven’t been following this blog and are new to it, keep scrolling down to find the first post where I introduced Yoshioka about two weeks ago.

On today’s post, I’ll not narrate information on the dyeworks, but just let you enjoy a group of images shot around the studio on one of the days I was visiting.

Some ambient images of red seen at Kyoto’s botanical dyeworks, Sometsukasa Yoshioka. In the box below is the popular Japanese figure Otafuku, a mythic folk heroine who is known as the female half of a comic pair in Japan’s traditional Kyogen theatre, a comic form of entertainment.  She is considered to be the embodiment of mirth and is often depicted in Japanese art and folk art: here she is a roly-poly made of papier-mache, and now doubt she is sitting on this shelf to bring good luck.

Red paper camellias and red lacquer trays.  The red paper camellias are used during the dramatic Omizutori festival at Nara’s ancient Todai-ji, one of Japan’s most treasured temples.

Please scroll down to see the previous posts on Sometsukasa, the botanical dyeworks in Kyoto and Sachio Yoshioka, the master dyer and cultural historian whose family has been operating this dyeworks for five generations.

This post on the botanical dyeworks in Kyoto, Sometsukasa Yoshioka, introduces yellow simply as color, without delving into details on the dyeing technique or its symbolic meaning.

Have look at the dyer dyeing a length of bright, maize yellow colored cloth, the entire time he is doing so he is agitating the cloth for even coverage during the dyeing and rinsing.  And yes, that IS a tree growing in the middle of the room.

The image, below, was shot in the entrance way to the workshop and shows tree bark with a bright yellow interior.

I invite you to scroll down through the previous postings to learn more about Sachio Yoshioka, the fifth generation dyer of Kyoto, Japan.  In my first post I offer an introduction to him, and in the subsequent posts, I hope to illustrate his work through photos.

Benibana, or safflower dyeing will be featured in the next post.