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This Month > Interview with Mr. Hiraoka & Huran
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Interview with Mr. Hiraoka & Huran
Calm mind in a sea of creative genius
range of clients, he opened this small shop in 2007 in his garage.
Mr. Hiraoka, whose lovely open-air shop and studio near the Kyoto Handicraft Center, is open to the public on most days, is a well-known kimono craftsman. He specializes in applying gold foil using stunningly fine paper stencils on kimono fabric. Aside from his main business of providing masterpiece textiles for a wide
The name of the shop is Huran which means concentration, or calm of mind. In this lovely shop setting you can both window shop (the eye candy quality of his designs and color choices are a pleasure in themselves) and buy excellent inexpensive souvenirs like post cards and T-shirts with wildly beautiful gold patterns on them.
This image shows snow laden bamboo in spring. It is meant to suggest that even in difficult times or old age that spring is not far away. Our backs like the bamboo bend with time and on many occasions are able to bounce back when the snow has melted. This stencil was used to create stenciled silk textiles for making an elegant custom-designed kimono.
He also takes custom orders for bed spreads and pillow covers (the gold never washes off!). He is also a collector of old, precision stencils like the ones shown below. These are made of karagami paper a special kind of strong handmade Japanese paper that is also used to cover high-quality sliding patterned paper doors (fusuma). He loves to talk about his passions and would be very open to foreign visitors.
The shop is on Shogoin-dori, which is the first main east west street behind the Kyoto Handicraft Center. Walk east on Shogoin-dori till you see the big school on your right; the shop is about 50 meters east of the big school building on the north side of the street; Tel: 090-6606-0855.
Buddhist serenity combined with sensual suggestion and flowing mind
Autumn delight expressed through falling (gold yellow) ginko leaves
2009 August
Published on the 1st
of every month.
The 234th issue, since 1987.