Kyo Karakami is mainly used as wallpaper and for sliding doors.

"To know" "To experience" "To enjoy"

You get a chance to experience the beauty and new possibilities of Kyo Karakami.

We have hands-on workshops where you get to use authentic printing blocks and touch real Kyo Karakami, a gift shop where wooden stamps using motifs of the printing blocks and various interior items using Kyo Karakami are available, on the second floor our craftsmen produce the Kyo Karakami in our printing studio.

By gathering everything in one place you can experience all aspects of Kyo Karakami all at once. Through revealing the previously hidden traditional techniques we hope to increase the popularity of Kyo Karakami.

Karakami is written with characters that mean “Tang Chinese paper ”, and just as its name suggests , it is a beautifully crafted paper that came from Tang China during the Nara Period. At the time, high-society aristocrats regularly used karakami to write letters and poems as it brought out the beauty in their writing. During the Heian Period, when production of karakami started in Kyoto, the capital, it permeated aristocratic society and began to be used for fusuma shoji (paper screens for sliding doors) in homes built in the shindenzukuri(palace) architectural style. With the passing centuries, it became popular with the nobles, samurai warriors, tea ceremony practitioners, and in the Edo Period, with commoner merchants.Karakami has been passed on to the present as a traditional craft for fusuma, wallpaper, and interior decoration. Put simply, Kyo-Karakami is like a type of woodblock print, it uses printing blocks hand-carved on magnolia wood with traditional patterns passed down from ancient times. It is produced by a traditional method where coloring materials called kira(mica) and gofun(Chinese white) are added to its surface, and the design is copied with the plam of the hand while overlaying the design onto Japanese paper or torinoko(Japanese vellum paper)one sheet at a time. To this day, we continue to use printing blocks from the Tempo Era(1830-1844) and observe the patterns, coloring materials, tools, and traditions of old.

We have prepared several courses where you get to experience the traditional craft from Kyoto that is Kyo Karakami in a care free environment.
You get to experience Kyo karakami through our courses which are tailored exclusively for you.
First time participants can print their own small scale Karakami and postcards,
it is also possible to order art panels and miniature folding screens using your own prints.
We also have courses available where you get to see our craftsmen print authentic large scale Kyo Karakami with your own eyes.

Here at Karamaru in addition to our experience courses we also have a shop where you can buy wooden stamps with woodblock motifs as well as Karakami interior items and more. Our products makes for perfect decorative items as well as souvenirs.

※ It is not a duty free shop

※ The staff speak only Japanese

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  View with google map

• ＜By bus＞
  Roughly 4 minutes walk from the “Karasuma matsubara” stop using a Kyoto Municipal Bus

  ＜By train＞
  Roughly 5 minutes walk from Karasuma subway line “Shijo station” Exit 5
  Roughly 8 minutes walk from Hankyu Kyoto karasuma line “Karasuma station” Exit 15

  ※We have no parking space available, if possible please use public transportation.
  ※Please use any nearby paid parking lots should you come by car.

Karamaru

Hours / 10:00〜17:30
Closed Sundays / National holidays, Mondays, Bon/New year
460 Senshoji-cho, Takatsuji-dori Yanaginobanba Nishiiru,
Shimogyo-ku, Kyoto-city, Kyoto, JAPAN

TEL : +81 (0)75-361-1324
FAX : +81 (0)75-361-1319

Contact us via e-mail here