House of Okajima: The Art of Japanese Fabric

Draw yourself into the artworks hidden inside Japanese kimonos, led by a family of artisans and their handcrafted tradition that has lasted five generations. Produced and published by ERG Media, House of Okajima – The Art of Japanese Fabric brings together more than 200 handmade patterns and textile art made, printed, and treasured by the Okajima family for over 170 years. Once concealed as linings inside kimonos, these artisanal fabrics, conceived using the decades-old dyeing technique known as kata-yūzen, unfold in a large-format printed volume for the first time. Spanning over 400 pages, the book is the definitive record of what the Okajima name stands for. It holds original photography from within the family's workshops and a curated selection of patterns from the Okajima archive, each with a caption tracing its context, history, and culture. Honoring the family's craftsmanship, the volume comes in a Hako Chitsu, a traditional Japanese folding case sealed with wooden bone clasps and designed to replicate the look and feel of screenprinted silk. Three paper stocks and special inks render every pattern across the pages with the depth and richness of the original textile.