Kinsai Ueda: Founded by a Mother and Daughter to Preserve Traditional Crafts

Could you tell us about how Kinsai Ueda was founded?

Kinsai Ueda is a Kinsai studio run by my mother and me. My mother has been working in a Kyoto Yuzen studio since she was 18 years old. After getting married and giving birth, she took on a typical job, but she returned to her craft when she was given an opportunity to join a new Kinsai studio.

On the other hand, seeing my mother work as an artisan from when I was a child, traditional crafts were always a part of my life. I didn’t realize at the time that this job was something special to be passed down, so I went on to college and worked for an apparel company, just like my peers.

When I was working as a salesperson in the apparel company, I was living apart from my mother, so we often talked about our daily life or work-related matters over the phone.

Through these talks with my mother, I gradually started to recognize the differences between general corporate life and the world of traditional crafts. For example, despite their skills, traditional artisans are not compensated accordingly. Also, though the Kinsai applied to kimonos takes advantage of the beauty of classical designs and incorporates designs according to the times, I thought that Kinsai could be applied to a wider range of designs.

As these thoughts accumulated, I began to think that starting something on our own, including the preservation of Kinsai as a traditional craft, would enable us to pursue a better path. So, in the quest for possibilities beyond the use of Kinsai on kimonos, we set up this studio together.