Master Shikkai · Nishijin, Kyoto · 75+ years
One of the last working shikkai in Kyoto's Nishijin district.
His craft education began in the years after the war, when he joined his family's textile work and never left.
Over 75 years, he has produced approximately 200 obi for one of Kyoto's most distinguished houses — a 280-year-old atelier.
His hands have changed shape over decades of weaving —deformed by repetition into forms that allow movements no younger craftsman's hands can make.
He has worked barefoot since childhood and still does at 84. The works he produces cannot be replicated after him. Several are now in the permanent collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. He is now able to produce one new work per year.