Kenichi Kishimoto, 33, and Noriko Yasuda, 34, are a fashion-design duo who run an atelier-cum-shop named Native Works that's right beside the world-renowned Todaiji Temple.
Both originally from Nara, they studied at the same design school in Osaka before landing jobs with separate fashion brands in Kobe.
When they were younger, the two confess that they did not particularly like Nara, as they felt it was way off the fashion radar. But then, while working in Kobe, they both grew skeptical of so-called "fast fashion" — that branch of the industry whose goal is to churn out trendy clothes at the lowest prices possible.