My Gift for Japanese Artisans

In Japan, one always gives a gift when visiting someone. When we visited an artisan or maker, we always gave our more “important” gifts.

Our guide took us to visit Kubota-san in Kyoto, a stencil dyer. We had a lovely time visiting after seeing his studio where they were printing a kimono-length piece of cloth. When I gave him a silk handkerchief I dyed after folding it an interesting way and then doing arashi-shibori (pole dyeing) in my indigo vat. He was pleased and immediately put it into his pocket!  I had been worried that it wasn’t useful, just a unique piece of silk!