Open Studio

Tours of our studio

OKAYAMA-KOGEI boasts three traditional craftspeople specializing in the hand-painted Yuzen style such as our chairman Kozo Okayama, who was awarded the Order of the Sacred Treasure, Silver Rays in 2019, and Takeko Okayama, Japan’s first female master of Kyoto’s hand-painted Yuzen-style, who in 2006 was the first female recipient of the Kyoto Prefecture’s award for excellent craftspeople of traditional craftwork in Kyoto.
Aspiring to become such skilled specialists themselves, people who dream of becoming artisans of tomorrow gather at our studio.

Furthermore, OKAYAMA-KOGEI has been designated as an open studio by he Kyoto Yuzen Cooperative Association, the Committee of the Promotion of Kyoto Tourism, and the Kyoto Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Tours and classes for first-hand experience dyeing and painting in the Kyoto Yuzen-style are available by reservation.

We not only provide you with viewing tours, personal crafting experience, and made-to-order items, but we are also able to remake or alter your kimonos upon request. Our expert staff is ready to be of assistance in placing your order.

Message from the CEO

Since the foundation of OKAYAMA-KOGEI, we have individualized and diversified our products to meet the needs of the market with flexible ideas. We have our own designing division and have active management in the production of our own original products. Our company is still young, having only been founded in 1968, within the history and traditions revered in the Japanese clothing industry. Since the very beginning, our company’s vision for the creation of kimonos has evolved in accordance with the generations. We have received support from all over the industry, and our success continues to expand.

At OKAYAMA-KOGEI, we have always been striving to develop new talent and improve our skills. Apart from winning the Award from the Chief of the Manufacturing Industries Bureau in various competitions, we have received many prestigious prizes such as the Award of the Chief of Kinki Bureau of Economy, Trade and Industry, the Kyoto Governor's Prize and the Mayor's Prize. We have also been awarded by the Traditional Crafts Industry Promotion Association Foundation, the Kyoto Chamber of Commerce and Industry and by various department stores since our first submission.

Our remarkable growth can be credited to the creative sense of fashion and effort of each and every one of our employees. We believe that to ensure further development in the future, a sense of individuality and further challenges are indispensable.

Our company's management philosophy is to keep supplying the market with highly fashionable kimonos and to pass on and advance Japanese traditions and culture while making people who wear kimonos look more elegant and graceful, making their lives more fulfilling.
CEO
Maki Okayama