Somenosato Ochiai, General Incorporated Association SKU: BJ_P_00013

Tokyo-dyed Komon, Small Floral Pattern in Yellow-Green Gama-guchi Eyeglass Case · Floral Komon

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Product Details

PRODUCT DETAILS

Small flowers, held in a clasped curve

Cut from 100% silk tsumugi and finished as a compact clasp eyeglass case, this piece brings Tokyo Some-Komon into an everyday ritual. A yellow-green ground carries a dense field of small white flowers, while the curved metal frame gives the soft floral surface a crisp outline. It is a quiet way to keep eyewear close.

USE & APPRECIATION

A bright marker on the desk

Before opening your notebook, give your glasses a familiar place on the desk. The case's yellow-green silk and fine white flowers bring a bright textile accent beside plain paper. Keep it within reach and enjoy the patterned surface each time you pause to change eyewear.

Yellow-green Tokyo Some-Komon eyeglass case beside a notebook and pen on an indoor desk.

Beside an indoor reading chair

Settle into an indoor reading chair with the case beside your book. Its compact, curved outline fits naturally into a small side-table arrangement, while the floral komon adds detail against wood. When you finish a chapter, let putting your glasses away become part of the pause.

Yellow-green Tokyo Some-Komon eyeglass case on a side table beside an indoor reading chair.

Part of the morning choice

As you prepare at the dressing table, keep the case near the glasses you choose. The metal frame outlines a field of tiny flowers, balancing the silk's pattern with a clear shape. Pair it with a plain tray and let this useful object provide the decorative detail.

Yellow-green Tokyo Some-Komon eyeglass case arranged on an indoor dressing table.

Pattern that rewards a closer look

Between uses, leave the case on a clean indoor surface where you can appreciate it closely. Small white flowers repeat across yellow-green silk tsumugi, giving the curved form a different character from every angle. Enjoy the pattern before returning it to its everyday role with your glasses.

Close view of the small white floral pattern on a yellow-green Tokyo Some-Komon eyeglass case in soft daylight.

A useful gift with a craft connection

For someone who reaches for glasses throughout the day, choose a gift they can enjoy repeatedly. This case brings floral silk tsumugi to a familiar object, with a curved clasp frame that sets off the pattern. Present it simply so the textile becomes the focus; glasses are not included.

A single yellow-green Tokyo Some-Komon eyeglass case presented as a craft gift on a simple indoor table.

OBJECT PASSPORT / CARE & USE

Care & Handling

Care summary: washing, ironing, and outdoor use are not permitted for this silk eyeglass case.

Washing, ironing, and outdoor use are not permitted.

OBJECT PASSPORT

Product details

Dimensions
19.5 cm × 9.5 cm
Material
100% silk (tsumugi)
Product weight
70 g
Origin
Japan
Craft Heritage

CRAFT HERITAGE

Craft Heritage

The origins of komon dyeing reach back to the Muromachi period, but the practice became widespread during the Edo period. A production center developed in Edo to dye the formal kamishimo worn by feudal lords who gathered there from across Japan.

Initially associated with samurai dress, komon spread among townspeople in the mid-Edo period and flourished under the influence of urban culture. It was worn by both men and women during the Edo period, but became exclusively women’s attire in the Meiji period.

How It’s Made

TRADITIONAL CRAFT PROCESS

How It’s Made

About the Making Process

Tokyo Some-Komon is produced in a single workshop, from preparing the colored paste through final drying.
An approximately 20-centimeter stencil is placed repeatedly along a bolt of white fabric about 12 meters long, with precise alignment required to create an uninterrupted fine pattern.
To reproduce the carver's design accurately, the dyer monitors the condition of the fabric, stencil, and paste throughout the process.

1. Carving the Stencil
  • Two or three sheets of handmade washi are laminated with persimmon tannin to create the stencil paper.
  • The carver cuts the intricate pattern using awls, small knives, and specially made carving tools.
2. Preparing the Colored Paste
  • Glutinous rice flour, rice bran, and a small amount of salt are mixed, steamed, and kneaded into a base paste. Dyes are then added.
  • The base color and pattern color are adjusted through repeated test dyeing.
3. Applying the Stencil Paste
  • White silk is stretched taut across a long, solid fir board. A cypress spatula is used to press resist paste through the stencil.
  • The stencil is repositioned along an approximately 12-meter bolt by aligning tiny registration points called okuriboshi. Its moisture is carefully controlled because drying can alter the stencil’s dimensions and disrupt the alignment.
4. Drying on the Board
  • The resist paste is dried while the fabric remains attached to the board. For multicolored designs, the stencil application is repeated.
5. Ground-Color Dyeing (Shigoki)
  • Once the resist is dry, the fabric is removed from the board and ground-color dye paste is spread evenly across the surface with a large spatula.
6. Steaming
  • Before the dye paste dries, the fabric is steamed at 90–100°C for approximately 15–30 minutes to set the color.
7. Washing
  • The steamed fabric is thoroughly rinsed to remove the resist paste and excess dye.
8. Drying and Finishing
  • The fabric is dried, returned to its proper width through a steam-finishing process called yu-noshi, and carefully inspected.
Meet the Maker

MEET THE MAKER

Meet the Maker

MAKER · OCHIAI, TOKYO

A Dyeing Culture Carried by a Community

Some-no-Sato Ochiai preserves more than finished textiles. It carries forward the knowledge of how designs are drawn, stencils are cut, color is judged, cloth is stretched, and skill is passed from one person to another.

A person in a blue kimono standing at a timber entrance associated with Some-no-Sato Ochiai.
Yoko Takaichi, Representative Director and Cultural Steward

Yoko Takaichi’s path into this world began through the neighborhood itself. Raised close to kimono through her mother, who worked in tailoring, she later created a local community publication while raising her family. A visit to the dye house Futabaen led to her involvement with Some-no-Komichi, a community project created to make Ochiai’s nearly hidden dyeing culture visible again. In 2015, she served as the project’s representative. She now leads Some-no-Sato Ochiai as its representative director.

Her role is to hold together the workshop’s cultural purpose, its relationship with the neighborhood, and the work of the dyeing craftspeople. The workshop’s craftspeople carry out the dyeing, while Takaichi connects their work with the wider community as its representative.

A Century of Dyeing in Ochiai

The workshop traces its lineage to Futabaya, established in Ochiai in 1920. The district had become a center for dyeing as makers moved upstream in search of cleaner water along the Kanda and Myoshoji rivers. At its height, the area was home to more than 300 dye-related businesses; lengths of cloth being rinsed in the river were once part of the neighborhood’s everyday landscape.

That industrial landscape has become far smaller, but the work continues. Some-no-Sato Ochiai was established to carry the century-old workshop heritage forward, train people, share the culture, and keep hand processes present in the city where they developed.

Why the Hand Still Matters

Edo dyeing is a sequence of judgments. A design is translated into stencils; cloth is fixed evenly to a long printing board; paste and color must be applied with control; each layer must meet the last. A single Edo Sarasa design may require dozens of stencils, while especially complex work can require hundreds. In the coloring room, recipes handed down over time are not simply repeated: craftspeople continue to adjust and develop color by eye and by experience.

These hand processes create the rhythm of pattern and depth of color associated with Edo dyeing. The judgment of craftspeople working with stencils, paste, and dye shapes its expressive character.

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