Scarf-Making Tour at Tomita Somekogei’s 130-Year-Old Dyeing Workshop

Traditional Craftsmanship in the Heart of Tokyo

Tomita Dye Craft sits on the Kanda River in Shinjuku. Starting over a century ago as a kimono dyer, they continue to make high-quality fabric wares using traditional Edo Komon and Edo Sarasa patterns. Join one of Tomita’s artisans for a scarf-making experience in an environment filled with discovery, learning, and joy.

The workshop’s exterior gives visitors a sense of its history

Make a Unique Scarf in Your Choice of Pattern and Color

Edo Sarasa’s beguiling gradations and overlapping colors arise from its meticulous production process, where each piece is printed individually. In this experience, guests can choose from four patterns shown in the photo below: Karahana-yokodan (top-left); Karahana (top-right); Nadeshiko (bottom left); and Hana-ni-tori (bottom right).

Four different scarf patterns are available

First, guests are invited to practice printing their pattern using their artisan’s work as a guide. After soaking a special round brush with dye and glue, color is applied to a paper stencil in fine layers.

A craftsman presents a stencil which will be used to print a pattern

Stencils and Colors Applied with Single-Minded Devotion

Tomita’s dyeing process requires a great deal of patience and precision. As the artisan paints, applies, and changes each stencil, the anticipation rises and the final pattern begins to take shape.

It is said to take over five years to become a full-fledged craftsman, but even then some slight deviations will attest to the human element of the production process.

A craftsman demonstrates finer details of the pattern-making process

Tour a Workshop Full of History

After the scarf has been completed, guests will tour Tomita’s 130-year-old workshop. It holds the largest collection of dyeing stencils in Japan, as well as facilities for creating and testing new dyes. Guests will also learn how the Kanda River was once essential to the work performed at Tomita, and how history remains suffused in every corner of the workshop.

Shelves store some 120,000 stencils, some preserved from the time of Tomita’s founding

A Professional Finish for a Personal Scarf

After printing, scarves are steamed for 30 to 60 minutes to add softness to the material and luster to the colors. Tomita’s artisans will rinse and dry the fabric, then ship it to your home or hotel within three days. Guests participating in the six-hour Full Process experience can participate in the finishing process and take their scarves home the same day.

The delicate, overlapping patterns combine to make each scarf a truly one-of-a-kind item, perfect for use as either centerpiece or accessory.

The printed scarves are finished by artisans, who steam, rinse, and dry them before shipping

(Optional) Lightweight Luxury with Ten’nyo no Hagoromo Fabric

For an additional fee, guests may choose to make their scarf from Ten’nyo no Hagoromo (‘Angel Robe’) fabric. This ultra-thin luxury fabric is used by top fashion houses in Japan and around the world. Made from an interwoven blend of silk and polyester strands just a fifth the thickness of a human hair, it is soft, light, and labor-intensive: it takes an artisan half a day to weave just 30cm of the fabric. Tomita uses silk dyes that don’t adhere to polyester, which causes a striped pattern in the finished product.

Ten’nyo no Hagoromo is both denser and finer than ordinary silk, and is accordingly extremely smooth and soft to the touch. It also features excellent absorbency and permeability, making it comfortable to wear whatever the season. Wearers find it a light and beautiful textile that seems to float in the air.

Ten’nyo no Hagoromo is one of Japan’s most prized fabrics

The fabric doesn’t stretch or wrinkle, and feels almost weightless