Colours move and spirit lives, in dye.

The layered colours, and special beauty of a peacock’s wing. The work of dye master of Yoshikazu Fujimoto has the depth and iridescent colour of such a bird. Fujimoto practices a technique known as ’tezashi’ stencil dye, where he uses a small brush to paint between the gaps of a stencil glued to fabric. Among stencils he selects of combination of two, or three, to create original patters. The strange effects of this combination, together with Fujimoto’s own ‘blur dyeing’ style of colour gradation, are part of the secret to create the peacock wing beauty of his work. The owner of a unique style, Fujimoto acquired it through his more than 60 years of experience in the dye trade. He was born in the textiles region of Hachioji in Tokyo, into a family of weavers. After graduating college in 1954 he entered the tutorage of Sonbei Ishii, a master of the Edo Komon print technique. After more than a decade spent perfecting his skill with Ishii, he struck out alone, and established his own workshop in Hachioji. In addition to his stencil dye work, Fujimoto is also a master of the ‘woodblock dye’ style, which is rare even in Japan. An innovator still today, Fujimoto says that he loves a challenge. Recently he has branched out from kimono to new canvases: such as parasols, to find new expressions for his work.

Fujimoto Senkougei
1-24-2,Motoyokoyama,Hachioji,Tokyo 192-0063
Tel:+81-42-642-8804
Fax:+81-42-646-0812
Yoshikazu Fujimoto
fujimoto.some@gmail.com