Retail

Shinzaburo Ichizawa’s family has been making durable canvas bags since 1905. Today, Ichizawa sells a colourful array of bags and heavy-duty aprons. The company’s employees cut, stamp, sew and assemble every canvas item by hand, some still using 80-year-old Singer sewing machines in the process. “We have the skills to repair or remake any of our bags from decades ago because we still use the same old methods,” says Ichizawa. These last for years and only get better with age.

Keiko Yoshimura’s vintage Japanese furniture shop focuses on wooden pieces from the Meiji and early Showa periods (late 19th to mid-20th century). So much wood in such a small space can make a place seem gloomy but not here, where pieces range from rosewood dressers and pine wardrobes to cherry-wood side tables and coffee tables. Incidentally, “Yahho” is a cute and informal “Hi” among teenage Japanese girls.

Big retailers crowd Kyoto’s city centre but Daisuke Morikage (pictured) chose to locate his shirt shop in a quiet neighbourhood to the north. “I’m old-fashioned – I want to know my customers,” he says. After two decades Morikage’s business has stayed small: the seven-person operation produces 30 different types of handmade shirts per month. The shop also carries its own line of quality shirts for men and women that Morikage designs and outsources to factories in Japan, plus bags and dresses.

When she first came to Japan, South Korean-born, Hawaiian-raised Sonya Park made her name as a fashion stylist. Now she’s known for Tokyo-based Arts & Science, a brand she founded in 2003. With thoughtfully made clothes and accessories she now has four shops in Kyoto. 

The original Arts & Science is a womenswear shop that features fine natural fabrics in relaxed silhouettes. Across the street is & Shop for unisex clothes and overseas brands such as London-based Toogood and Indian label Rajesh Pratap Singh. Look out for Le Yucca’s, a small luxury shoe brand founded in 2000 by Yucca Murase. Next door is Hin Arts & Science, which focuses on craft pieces from Japan and beyond: clutch bags made with kimono and obi company Gion Saito, saké pourers by ceramicist Katsuya Shojima and folding fans by Sakata Bunsuke Shoten.

Keibunsha opened in 1975 in the north of the city. Lovers of books and bookshops alike flock here for its selection of 25,000 books and magazines covering everything from art and illustration to fashion and travel. There’s also a section for small independent publishers, as well as books about Kyoto (architecture, food, sweets, lifestyle, crafts and coffee), not to mention a corner for lifestyle goods and a gallery where rotating pop-up shops of crafts and clothes regularly appear.