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Convert Kyo Yuzen traditional assets into digital ones through NFT.Drafts depicting the beauty of Japanese style become the source of future art.

Art | 2022.02.14

Text by Hinata official

  • KYO"NEXT"YUZEN
  • Project

Kyo Yuzen continued to support Japanese ‘Miyabi’ or elegance through the kimono culture. The beauty of style that has been passed down continuously is condensed in original designs called ‘Soko’.

Kyo Yuzen is one of traditional craftworks made in Kyoto.
Japanese traditional designs such as the beauties of nature are drawn on silk cloth and dyed with various dyeing techniques. It is gorgeous dyeing fabric.
Using this fabric, traditional Japanese costumes including kimono are created.

The history began when it was invented by a folding fan painter in Kyoto,
Miyazaki Yuzensai during the Genroku period when merchant culture flourished.
(From the late 1600s to the early 1700s)
It started when extremely popular fabric painter Miyazaki Yuzensai style was used to dye kimono patterns with various dyeing techniques that have been passed down since ancient times.
Kyo Yuzen depicting the beauties of nature on white silk fabrics is synonymous with Japanese kimono. Beauty and techniques nurtured by the eternal history are alive in its graceful, colorful and elegant color patterns.

It is drawn in “Soko” or the full-size original designs of Kyo Yuzen including kimono.
Generally speaking, we don’t see “Soko”, but the beauty of style that has been passed down continuously is condensed in the designs drawn there.

The beauty of style that has uniquely evolved has a possibility to create new art in digital world.

A lot of Kyo Yuzen we see are traditional crafts.
It is a piece of art that is completed through a division of labor based on the skills of many craftsmen and dozens of processes.
Therefore “Soko” or design decided in the first process is stored in the storage room in the studio and its role is terminated after kimono is completed. But the beauty of style drawn in “Soko” has a high artistry as Japanese beauty that can be proud of the world.

Furthermore, because it is incomplete, it has infinite possibilities.
From the drawn design, craftsmanship is gathered to make traditional crafts.
Depending on the person who handles the design and the process, the art created will be various. We think that it can be transmitted widely digitally and increase its potential and value.

Send out artistic quality of Kyo Yuzen to the world with Kyoto
SEKIYA SENSHOKU Co.
We create the world in collaboration with new sensibility.

With SEKIYA SENSYOKU Co. that has succeeded to Kyo Yuzen in Rakuchu in Kyoto for more than 120 years, HINATA makes the design of Kyo Yuzen “Soko” owned by SEKIYA SENSYOKU into NFT. We start KYO “NEXT” YUZEN, a project to spread it to the world as digital art.

SEKIYA SENSYOKU has been making printed silk based on the Kyo Yuzen process called “Tegaki Yuzen” or hand-drawn textile patterns dyed in the yuzen style.
“Tegaki Yuzen” is a great art that goes through up to twenty processes. The original draft of the beauty is of great artistic value as it is, but there are many drafts of kimono that don’t exist anymore. It is a very rare art.

Not only do we spread the art “Soko” in the world as it is but we also offer the design to Japanese and foreign artists and creators. We try to create new works and communities that have never been made before.

Using NFT technology, what kind of world Kyo Yuzen, extremely analog traditional crafts, create? How does it evolve? Its traditional beauty passed down from generation to generation gives us inspiration to create a new world.


A traditional asset of the beauty that is being lost.
It is important to preserve the value and information correctly in digital preservation.

The purpose of this project is not only a traditional crafts update. It is also our important mission to preserve “Soko” that is a cultural asset of Kyo Yuzen.

“Soko” of Yuzen was drawn on paper and it will deteriorate greatly after several ten years.
Not all of them are managed as thoroughly as art museums. Most of them will be damaged and lost. To save this asset as digital data is also the purpose of this project.

But it’s not just leaving the digitally scanned image data. It is important to record the information of the publisher and the work correctly to pass on its value to future generations.
With the NFT blockchain technology, we will be able to remain as the data that cannot be forged.

The goal of this project is to connect with modern creators while respecting the creators of the past who have spun traditional beauty.
It’s not a finished product called a craft. I think it’s meaningful because of its design that is the beginning of the process of beauty.


Through this project, we will continue our declining artistic culture in a new way and be able to contribute to the sustainable world with the creation of a creative community.


SEKIYA SENSHOKU Co.

Established in 1897. We have succeeded the history and tradition of “Kyo Tegaki Yuzen” or hand-drawn textile patterns dyed in the yuzen style in Rakuchu in Kyoto. Based on the philosophy that kimono is the best national costume in the world, we will continue to pursue the beauty that Japan has since ancient times and pioneer the state of new Kyo Yuzen in the digital field.

259, Maruta-machi agaru, Muromachi-dori, Daimon-cho, Kamikyo-ku, Kyoto city 602-8024 Japan
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WORKS

SEKIYA-SENSHOKU

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