Kyoto has long been famous for its high-quality weaving . The centre of the city's textile industry is the Nishijin district, located northwest of the Imperial Palace. Even today you'll still hear the clatter of looms in dozens of family-run workshops as you walk through the area. Some of these families have been here since the early 1500s when their ancestors, returning to Kyoto after the ravages of the Onin Wars (1467-77), settled in an abandoned military camp called Nishi-jin. They revived the production of aya , a unique style of elaborately patterned weave, which eventually became synonymous with Nishijin. During the Edo period (1603-1868) these sumptuous silk brocades were much in demand - it's estimated that the area boasted more than 5000 looms at its peak - but business collapsed after the Meiji Restoration as Western fashions took over. To counteract the decline, several Nishijin craftsmen travelled to France to study modern techniques, and came back with the revolutionary Jacquard mechanical loom. Nowadays, the vast majority of Nishijin fabrics are produced on computerized looms, but the more complex designs are still woven on the Jacquard or the even more labour-intensive hand loom.
You can see samples of these gorgeous fabrics and demonstrations of traditional Nishijin weaving at the Nishijin Textile Centre (daily 9am-5pm; free), just south of the Horikawa Imadegawa junction. Take a close look at the incredibly painstaking tsuzurebata technique, aptly known as fingernail weaving; it can take a whole day to complete 1cm. The centre also puts on occasional kimono shows (¥600; tickets available at the ground-floor information desk) showcasing the season's fashions.
In Nishijin weaving, silk threads are dyed before being woven into their intricate patterns. Originally, only the aristocracy could afford these fabrics, and when merchants began to patronize the same tailors in the late seventeenth century the shogun promptly forbade such extravagance. However, an enterprising Kyoto craftsman, Yuzensai Miyazaki, soon came up with a method for hand-dyeing fabrics to create the same elaborate effect. Yuzen dyeing is still an incredibly complex process, involving successive applications of glutinous-rice paste and dye to produce detailed, multicoloured designs. Afterwards, the pattern is often augmented with powdered gold or silver leaf, or embroidered with gold threads. Some of these wonderful fabrics are on display in the Kodai Yuzen-en gallery (daily 9am-5pm; ¥500), located on Takatsuji-dori, southwest of the Hirokawa Shijo junction. Ask to see their introductory video in English first and then, if you're inspired, you can try it yourself on a handkerchief or table centrepiece (from ¥1050).
When luxury fabrics went out of fashion in the Meiji era, many weavers turned to other areas of textile production. One of these was the Utsuki family, who saw the potential in making good-quality indigo-dyed cloth which was traditionally worn by farmers. They still produce hand-woven clothes, noren curtains, bags and so forth in their lovely old workshop, Aizen-kobo (Mon-Sat 9am-5.30pm; free), two blocks west of the Nishijin Textile Centre, on Nakasuji-dori. The English-speaking owner will explain the laborious techniques involved in hand-dyeing the cloth with natural indigo and then sun-drying it to give a glorious, rich shade of blue.