Edo Komon Pocket Square: Gosho-guruma (Crimson Birch) × Maru-tōshi (Brown)
The model holds the orange and brown Tokyo Some-Komon pocket square in a bright interior.
Front-facing portrait with the model holding the patterned silk square close to the camera.
The model holds the two-pattern silk pocket square beside her face in a softly lit room.
Close view of the two-pattern silk pocket square in a low three-point fold in a navy jacket pocket.
The warm patterned silk pocket square forms a restrained accent on a charcoal jacket displayed on a valet stand.
Edo Komon Pocket Square: Gosho-guruma (Crimson Birch) × Maru-tōshi (Brown)
The model holds the orange and brown Tokyo Some-Komon pocket square in a bright interior.
Front-facing portrait with the model holding the patterned silk square close to the camera.
The model holds the two-pattern silk pocket square beside her face in a softly lit room.
Close view of the two-pattern silk pocket square in a low three-point fold in a navy jacket pocket.
The warm patterned silk pocket square forms a restrained accent on a charcoal jacket displayed on a valet stand.
Tomita Dyeing & Crafts Co., Ltd. SKU: BJ_P_00096

Edo Komon Pocket Square: Gosho-guruma (Crimson Birch) × Maru-tōshi (Brown)

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Product Details

PRODUCT DETAILSTwo Tokyo patterns, one quiet flash of silkCut from 100% silk, this 35-centimeter square pairs the flowing detail of the gosho-guruma motif in a warm crimson-birch tone with the disciplined dot grid of maru-toshi in brown. Fold it to reveal either...
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

HOW IT’S MADE

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 · WASEDA, TOKYO

Patterns That Reveal Themselves Slowly

At its Waseda workshop, Tomita Dyeing & Crafts continues Tokyo Some Komon and Edo Sarasa using Ise *katagami* stencils, while also applying its dyeing knowledge to accessories and objects for contemporary life.

A man standing at the entrance of Tomita Dyeing and Crafts in Tokyo.
Atsushi Tomita, Fifth Generation

For Atsushi Tomita, dyeing was part of daily life long before it became his profession. From childhood, his mornings began alongside the workshop’s resident craftspeople, cleaning the garden and workspaces before school; after class, he returned to help with the family trade. He later worked for a women’s apparel company, then came home to the workshop at age 31. In 2006, he became its fifth-generation president.

That path—rooted in the workshop but informed by the wider world of fashion—still shapes his approach. Tomita carries forward inherited skill while looking for new patterns, colors, and forms that make Tokyo dyeing meaningful now.

A Workshop Shaped by Tokyo

The workshop was founded in Asakusa in 1882 and moved upstream to Waseda in 1914, when dye houses were seeking the cleaner water of the Kanda River. There, generations of makers have practiced Tokyo Some Komon and Edo Sarasa using Ise katagami stencils.

Tokyo Some Komon rewards a closer look: what first appears to be a quiet field of color resolves into an extraordinarily fine repeating pattern. Edo Sarasa builds a different kind of depth, layering motifs and color through successive hand processes. In both, the result depends on more than a design. It depends on how a stencil is placed, how paste and dye are prepared, and how consistently the maker works across a length of cloth.

Tradition, Kept Alive Through Use

Tomita does not see continuity as repetition. Through the workshop’s SARAKICHI line, inherited dyeing knowledge has moved beyond kimono into accessories and objects for contemporary life. The purpose is not to make tradition look new for its own sake, but to let the qualities that made it endure—restraint, wit, rhythm, and exacting handwork—remain useful and felt.

A Clear Line Back to Waseda

Buying from another country should not make the origin of the work abstract. The sequence shown here—Tomita, the Waseda workshop, an Ise *katagami* stencil, the preparation of color paste, and the dyed surface—keeps the chain of making visible. Together, these details show where the practice continues, who carries it forward, and why the finished surface bears the character of work done by hand.
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