9 Kyoto Traditional Craft Experience: From Textile Dyeing to Pottery

1. Textile Dyeing Workshops
   • Yuzen Dyeing, Roketsu Wax-Resist Dyeing
2. Traditional Japanese Handicraft Workshops
   • Pottery, Lacquerware Decorating, Chopstick Making, Shippo Enamel Accessories, Kyo-Kumihimo Braiding
3. Traditional Weapon Making Workshops
   • Swordsmithing, Ninja Weapon Making
4. Bonus: Ninja Experience Cafe Kyoto Gion
5. Summary

Pioneered by the artist Miyazaki Yuzensai during the Edo period, Kyo-yuzen is Kyoto's signature dyeing technique, celebrated for its painterly, colourful elegance.
We recommend Marumasu Nishimuraya, a long-established Kyo-yuzen workshop set in a renovated Kyoto townhouse (machiya).
It offers a wide range of courses, and you can choose from small items such as handkerchiefs and pouches to practical pieces like folding fans, furoshiki wrapping cloths and T-shirts.
Simply pick your item, design and colours, then place stencils over the fabric and brush on layers of dye to create your own original piece.
Duration: about 1 to 1.5 hours for the beginner's course, with half-day and full-day courses also available.

Around Kiyomizu-dera Temple, pottery workshops are a popular activity to combine with sightseeing.
You can shape everyday tableware such as rice bowls and yunomi (handleless Japanese teacups) with your own hands, and have them fired in a kiln.
Pottery is enjoyable for all ages, from children to seniors, making it ideal for families and couples.
The workshop introduced here even lets you try pottery while wearing a kimono, so you take home both a uniquely Japanese memory and a handmade piece of tableware.
Duration: about 1 to 2 hours

Lacquerware (shikki) is one of Japan's most iconic crafts.
At Kyo no Tezukuri Taiken (Kyoto Artisan Workshop), you can decorate lacquerware with coloured lacquer and gold powder.
Choose from items such as round plates, hand mirrors and accessory boxes, and try authentic techniques including maki-e (gold powder painting), chinkin (gold inlay) and raden (mother-of-pearl inlay).
You can take your finished piece home right away, so it makes a wonderful souvenir.
Duration: 60 to 90 minutes

Chopsticks are part of every Japanese meal, so why not make your own pair?
At Kyomachiya Experience Workshop Waraku, set in a Kyoto townhouse more than 100 years old, you can handcraft your own chopsticks surrounded by the pleasant scent of wood.
The workshop welcomes beginners, solo travellers, couples and families, and is easy to fit in between sightseeing stops.
Duration: about 1 hour

Kyo-shippo is Kyoto's traditional cloisonné enamel craft, prized for its timeless, elegant shine.
In Kyoto's Higashiyama district, you can make your own shippo accessories.
Glass-based enamel powder is placed on a silver or copper base and fired, creating a pendant or brooch that is truly one of a kind.
Duration: courses range from a casual 1-hour session to more advanced courses that let you try professional artisan techniques, and all of them are beginner-friendly.

Braided cords known as kumihimo became famous worldwide as a key item in the hit anime film Your Name (Kimi no Na wa).
Kyoto's version, Kyo-kumihimo, is a traditional craft in which colourful silk threads are braided into delicate patterns.
At Taiken Kobo Yusai in Kyoto's Kamigyo Ward, near Nijo Castle, you can make small items using Kyo-kumihimo.
Options include a keychain braided from two colours of thread and finished with a twisted tassel, and a bracelet that combines kumihimo with colourful power stones.
You can choose a design that matches your wishes or the kind of luck you hope for, creating an item that is uniquely yours.
Both are beginner-friendly and recommended for anyone who wants to try a Kyoto craft casually.
Duration: from 30 minutes for the shortest options, with most taking around 1 hour.

Alongside the katana, the most famous Japanese weapon is probably the shuriken used by ninja.
At Studio NIN in Kyoto, you can handcraft weapons said to have been used by ninja inside a Kyoto townhouse with more than 100 years of history.
Using high-quality steel and traditional techniques such as quenching, polishing and shaping, you make your own shuriken or kunai.
Duration: 2 hours 30 minutes

If making shuriken has sparked your interest in ninja, why not become one yourself?
At Ninja Experience Cafe Kyoto Gion, a 6-minute walk from Gion-Shijo Station, you change into a black ninja costume and take on shuriken and blowgun training.

Many guests are surprised when they learn how to throw a shuriken.
Instead of flicking it sideways like in anime and movies, you actually throw it overhand, swinging down like a baseball pitch.
Practising to the rhythm of "one, two" to get ready and "three" to throw, guests soon start hitting the target with a satisfying thud, and every hit is met with cheers.
The blowgun is easier than the shuriken, so even small children can take part with a little help from their parents.
It makes a great sound when it hits the target, so the whole family can get excited together.

The ninja costume is adjusted with plenty of ties, so it fits guests of all sizes, from tall adults to small children.
Once guests put on the hood, everyone lights up and says they look like a real ninja.
The cafe also has ninja-house tricks, such as a revolving door, a hanging scroll you can leap out of and a flipping tatami mat, so you can take photos and videos that look like a scene from a ninja battle.
Staff help with photos and videos, so solo travellers can enjoy it with ease, and parents can capture plenty of shots of their children looking cool.
As an indoor facility, it is perfect for rainy, hot or cold days.
Duration: about 1 hour (about 1.5 hours with a meal)