Pagong


1st October 2011


Change doesn't always happen quickly in Kyoto but an old kimono-dyeing company has reinvented itself as a producer of Japanese-inspired Western clothes.

The company, Kamedatomi, has also come up with its own clothing line and branched out into bags and other accessories.

The clothing line, Pagong, stands apart because its designs come from the patterns the company has collected over decades. Once meant for kimono, the patterns now adorn T-shirts, tank tops and, er, aloha shirts.





















I managed to persuade one of the sales staff at the Pagong shop in Gion to model a T-shirt for me. I also managed to visit the company's dyeing factory in the west of Kyoto.




The floor where dye is painstakingly painted onto rolls of fabric. What looks like a Jackson Pollock carpet is actually a drop cloth spattered with stray dye.





An artisan brushing dye onto fabric with the help of a stencil. The strength applied has to be equal right to left and top to bottom or the colours won't look even.




Finished design samples waiting for a colour check on the dyeing floor.
















A stairway mural. This is how factories should be decorated.





The CEO of the company, Mr Kazuaki Kameda, is also its creative engine. This is from his Rakugaki (Graffiti) series. First came the artwork then the bag.








I've never seen a bamboo forest in a storm but perhaps it's something like this.

Summer in the garden with geisha


16th September 2011


Summer's not all about suffering in the heat, not when you have beer gardens sprouting up like first aid stations.

But the beer garden at Kamishichiken has something the others don't: geisha.












Umesaya the maiko at our table. She answered our questions about life as an apprentice geisha, posed for photos and turned a chopsticks wrapper into a little boat that worked as a chopsticks holder. When someone remarked on it, she held an impromptu origami class.












For 1,800 yen, you get a mug of beer, hiyayakko (cold tofu) and edamame. But you can add other things from the menu. We ordered tamago yaki (egg rolls), burdock fries and takoyaki (in photo).














The beer garden became a different place in the dark. The maiko and geisha looked even more glamorous, if that's possible.





Tables were set up not only in the garden but also along the corridor outside the hall where the geisha of Kamishichiken dance.















The white circles on the lanterns represent dango (rice dumplings): this is the crest of the Kamishichiken geisha district.





You could get lost among the lanterns. I really wouldn't mind.