Kagurazaka, a town of Master Artisans

It is an important character of Kagurazaka that various cultural and commercial activities have been done based upon the history. But there are many problems in the genre. So we, the Not-for-Profit Organization (NPO) Ikimachi Club started a new action “Kagurazaka: A Town of Master Artisans” and support their activities. We started the talk and performance series by master artisans as a part of monthly “Machizukuri (Community Development) Seminars”, and let the audience know their skill, tradition, social system that support their activities and challenges.

              In October and November 20 16, we invited Ms. Masako Tada, an master artisan of Yuzen (coloring and drawing by hand on cloth) and a pattern designer Mr. Hiroshi Kudo of Cloth Coloring Association of Shinjuku for the seminar, and had their talks and performances of their world and current tasks. Yuzen was a local industry in the area for several centuries and still alive, but facing serious problems of shrink of market and decrease of workers. Their performance, showing the process of making pattern/design and coloring and was magnificent. 

              We are hoping to make opportunities where many people know and touch the works of Yuzen, and started to think it necessary to have a shared workspace for those local artisans in our community.