More than a century ago, the skills of paper stencil textile-dyeing artisans made it possible to mass-produce kimono with vivid and intricate designs that previously could only be achieved by hand painting.
Today, with fewer people wearing kimono on a daily basis, it has become one of the kimono industry's businesses that is looking to diversify. Now, many stencil producers are applying their skills to more widely used consumer products and tapping into new markets.
The Kyoto firm Fujiki Yuzenkata Seisakusho, for example, has found that producing pop art T-shirts has opened the door to new customers, particularly foreign tourists.