Kyoto, one of the world’s most important cities for craft

Kyoto Seika University is located in Kyoto city, one of the world’s most important regions for handcrafts with its 74 officially recognized traditional industries and over 20,000 practitioners of traditional techniques. Here, tradition is not something to be admired from afar, but rather, something that exists very close to the residents in their daily lives, from the tiled roofs of temples and the scarlet hue of the shrine gates to the traditional patterns on kimonos. Students seeking to learn from traditional culture and artisanal techniques gathered and formed the Traditional Craft Club. With the city of Kyoto as their classroom and traditional craft masters as their teachers, members of this student group study the skills, designs and even the spirit behind traditional handcrafts.