Kimono Making in Japan is A Dying Art

For centuries Japanese have worn beautiful, hand-crafted kimonos, but soon there will be no one left with the skills to make one of the nation's most enduring cultural symbols, say craftsmen.

Yasutaka Komiya, an 84-year-old craftsman, sat on a woven tatami mat floor flicking through piles of exquisitely decorated rainbow-hued silk.

"I started learning how to dye kimono fabrics in this style when I was 12," he said. "A few hundred years ago, thousands of people were doing this. But today? We are one of only three families left in Japan who can do this work."

The kimono industry, which produces one of the most enduring cultural symbols of Japan, is in crisis. Previously sustained by the need to dress an entire nation in traditional costume, it has today shrunk to a fraction of its former size.

Now leading figures in the industry are warning that within a decade the art of traditional kimono making, a crown in Japan's cultural heritage, could die out altogether as a generation of Japanese craftsmen who have spent a lifetime using specialist skills inherited from their own parents are now in their eighties.

Soichi Sajiki, whose family has made the garments for 200 years, said: "Japan's kimono industry is at a critical stage. We are seriously struggling to find ways of passing on our precious craftsmanship to the next generation.

"From the silk cocoon to the final product, there are more than 1,000 processes involved in one kimono, each carried out by different specialist craftsmen. It can take 40 years to master a single technique.

"Most craftsmen today are over 80 and within the next 10 years, many will pass away. We are in real danger of losing thousands of years of kimono-making techniques."

Once the garment of choice for samurai, aristocrats and workers alike, kimonos are rarely worn by today's young Japanese, who prefer to wear Western clothes. Even if a formal occasion does demand a kimono, they are likely to put on machine-made version - much cheaper than a traditional handmade kimono which costs between 180,000 and 1 million yen (£1,400 - £7,800).

As kimonos have gone out of fashion, the number of companies making them in Tokyo has shrunk - dwindling from 217 to 24 over the past 30 years. Even in Kyoto, the historic centre for traditional Japanse culture, there are now just 64 kimono makers left.

Mr Sajiki gave his warning in the refined tearooms of the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Tokyo's historic Nihonbashi district – once a major hub for the industry.

Dressed in an immaculate grey kimono fastened with a jade green clasp, Mr Sajiki, 54, gestured towards the sweeping views from the 38th floor. He said: "Nihonbashi used to be full of kimono makers. But things have changed. Sales are just one tenth of what they were were 30 years ago.

"We desperately need to encourage more young people to embrace the kimono, train more young craftsmen and diversify by selling our beautiful textiles internationally."

Forty-eight carefully selected young Japanese women were due to parade in their kimonos and make speeches about their love of the garment as they competed for the coveted title of Tokyo Kimono Queen - the climax of the city's first ever Kimono Week, launched by Mr Sajiki as chairman of the Tokyo Kimono Business Association.

But the youth and glamour of the accompanying concerts, fashion shows, and exhibitions were far from the staid discipline of Japan's ageing kimono makers. Among the nation's most endangered artisans are five women in their eighties who live in the remote mountains of Niigata prefecture – the only remaining people who know how to use one particular 1,000-year-old hemp weaving technique.

In his workshop in Tokyo, Mr Komiya is the only artisan still able to undertake a delicate form of handpainting kimono silk in pure gold.

His own unique skills have, at least, been recognised by the governemnt, which has granted him the revered status of Living National Treasure – a living, breathing cultural asset to be protected.

Backed with government subsidies, he has been able to pass on the techniques he learnt from his own father to his son Yasumasa, 54, who in turn is training his two grandsons.

"It's important for the kimono industry to evolve and modernise in order to survive," said the younger Mr Komiya. "Traditional craftsmanship should ideally be passed on from generation to generation, but this is not going to be possible in the future."

Kimono makers need to seek customers abroad, said Chie Hayakawa, communications director at the Mandarin Oriental hotel where last week's events were being held.

"Kimonos are exquisitely beautiful, made from the finest silks in the world," she said. "These handcrafted fabrics should be more widely used internationally, with more collaborations with high profile fashion designers. There is so much potential."

A stone's throw from the hotel is the Nihonbashi landmark Mitsukoshi, one of Japan's oldest department stores which began its life in 1673 as a kimono store.

Today, its "kimono salon" spans an entire floor and is home to more than 30,000 handcrafted costumes, one of the biggest collections of handcrafted in the country.

Designs range from seasonal images - cherry blossoms, autumn leaves and sweeping scenes of nature - to delicate abstract patterns created using old dyeing techniques, hand painting or gold embroidery.

Vivid hues such as scarlet are reserved for young women. The unmarried wear long hanging sleeves. Designs for older married women are in more subdued hues, with less flowing sleeves and subtle motifs.

As lunchtime shoppers and office ladies perused the rolls of silk and hanging kimono, Shigeru Tezuka, a manager, said: "We are trying to target young women with more modern products – contemporary designs and bright colours and competitive prices.

"We're also talking to one very famous Italian fashion brand at the moment about a collaboration - to make bags to go with kimonos."

The hope is that Japan's kimono industry might be saved if its products could one day be worn by the world's supermodels.