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Photo: Typical silk kimono merchant's selling room.

In Kyoto, Mariko arranged to take me to see Mrs. Kondo. Mrs. Kondo’s father was a silk kimono merchant. She has turned the front portion of her house into a private museum that features kimonos on the screens (sliding walls) of their traditional Japanese merchant house. Mrs. Kondo lives here, but keeps the front part of the house just as it was 80 years ago when her father sold yuzen dyed silk kimonos.

Her father also started the Yuzen Dyeing Museum which is located adjacent to her house. Yuzen dyeing is a stencil process of dyeing and hand painting silk. The museum features an array of antique kimonos –some that are 400 years old. On the upper level of the museum you will find artisans who are still doing the yuzen process. Prior to the Yuzen dying process the designs were generally embroidered on a colorful silk background. To read more about Yuzen dyeing click here.

I was honored to get to have a private tour of this historic place. The antique kimonos are artfully attached to the screens and all the leftover bits were used in fans as well as to decorate many other items as shown in the video. Many of these kimonos are 300-400 years old.

Following my visit to the Yuzen Dyeing Museum we went to see the Kinkakuji Temple with its breathtaking gardens and lake. Kinkakuji (Golden Pavilion) is a popular name for one of the main buildings of this Zen temple, which is properly called Rokuon-ji Temple. In the 1220’s (yes, 1220!) it was the comfortable villa of Kintsune Saionji. It is completely covered in gold leaf and it is a world heritage site. You can learn more about this incredible place here.