Kaga Yuzen Dyeing A breath of Kanazawa's rich natural beauty Using the colors known as the five Kaga colors of deep red, indigo, yellow, brown, green and purple, Kaga yuzen dyers elegantly depict the classical world of Japanese natural beauty on traditional garments and succeed in creating a microcosm of nature in all its grace and dignity. Impressive colors are a strong feature of Mr Maida's creations. Delicate depictions of nature One of the characteristics of Kaga yuzen dyeing its skillful use of light and dark shades of the five Kaga colors with the added feature of gradation. Kaga yuzen dyeing once referred to either freehand or stencil-dyed patterns, but now it is principally hand-painted. I talked with artist Mr Kenji Maida about his yuzen painting. Yuzensai's world Kaga Yuzen goes back 350 years, its forerunner being a dyed cloth called Kaga-zome, which was made in the Muromachi period (1392-1568). Mr Maida tells me the name yuzen is derived from a painter of folding fans called Miyazaki Yuzensai, who appears in Ihara Saikaku's novel "The Adventures of an Amorous Man." It was the third head of the Maeda clan in Kaga (present-day Kanazawa), Maeda Toshitsune, who brought Yuzensai to Kaga from Kyoto. Kanazawa was a castle town renowned for its high level of culture and the Maeda lords had prepared the ground well for a flourishing of the traditional arts. It was in this fertile ground that Kanazawa's own form of yuzen dyeing took root. Mr Maida's father, Jinro Maida was a famous Kaga yuzen dyer who was designated a Living Treasure of Ishikawa Prefecture. Not to take short cuts Investing life in every stroke "I was trained in nihonga (Japanese-style painting) at university," explains Mr Maida, "but I was originally drawn to this work under the influence of my father." He tells me that no matter what your background is and how much theory you learn, it is a world where practice and experience count for everything. There is a rather tense atmosphere in Mr Maida's workshop, which is one of the few workshops now where all the processes are done by the same individual craftsmen and none of the work is farmed out. I was intrigued by a piece of calligraphy hanging in the workshop which means one thousand purples, ten thousand reds . Mr Maida explained to me that he inherited the saying from his father and it means that even with purple there are a thousand shades and with red, ten thousand. "So it reminds one of the infinite possibilities in world of color; that you may never know it all, but you should never stop exploring." There are 270 artists registered with the Promotion Council for Kaga dyeing. An artist may be registered if he has been doing Kaga yuzen dyeing for at least 7 years and has been recommended by two existing members. Mr Maida is one of the top artists in the group. Kaga yuzen and kimono The gentle expression on Mr Maida's face while he talks with me suddenly becomes serious as he picks up his brush to work. Kaga yuzen freehand dyeing is such concentrated work that when the artist faces his canvas he enters his own world. "I'm not an artist, I am a shokunin (artisan)," claims Mr Maida. "And I feel that in these days of mass consumption and mass production we have forgotten the spirit of making things by hand and enjoying things made by hand." He laments that people are forsaking the kimono, which he sees as an "elegant garment with so much hidden potential and ability to bring pleasure to the wearer." It's time to reappraise the kimono," he thinks. Mr Maida poses in front of a work that took him half a year to complete. A Western-style garment designed to spread the word about Kaga yuzen overseas Telling the world about Kanazawa culture While an artist, Mr Maida is also active in promoting the wonders of yuzen dyeing. He has taught numerous students at his alma mater, the Kanazawa University of Fine Arts and Crafts, and has served as the director of the Ishikawa Prefectural Fine Arts and Culture Association. He has even been experimented with the design of Western-style evening dresses using Kaga yuzen cloth so that he might spread the word about Kanazawa's culture to other parts of the world. There is now a plan to build a Kanazawa Modern Art Museum and he is thinking hard about how he might impress people best with the beauty of Kanazawa crafts and create new markets for them. Some of the many colors needed for Kaga yuzen. Japanese artists are said to be able to distinguish some 200,000 different colors. Profile Kenji Maida Graduated from Kanazawa University of Fine Arts and Crafts in 1964 majoring in nihonga painting. In 1978 he was awarded the Cultural Agency Chief's prize at the Japan Dyed Fabrics Exhibition and in the same year was appointed as a regular member of the Japan Art Crafts Association.