Inside Kujokan · Tokyo National Museum
For sixty minutes, sit inside Kujokan — a historic hall not usually open to the public — and braid a silk cord on a marudai stand, guided by Domyo, a kumihimo studio working since 1652. Choose your colors, learn the Nara-gumi technique, and finish your cord as a strap or a bracelet to take home.
Strap or bracelet — you choose
Why here
Kujokan once stood within the Kujo family residence inside the Kyoto Imperial Palace compound — one of the five houses from which Japan's imperial regents were chosen. The Kujo family donated the building to the Museum in 1934, and it was relocated to the garden you see today.
Inside, the fixed wall panels and sliding doors carry Kano-school landscape paintings, and the transoms are carved with a wisteria-diamond motif. For sixty minutes, this hall most visitors only view from outside is where you will sit, thread in hand, looking out over the garden.
It's a different kind of museum visit — pair it with the galleries next door, and the afternoon becomes something you made with your own hands, not only something you looked at.
The experience
Domyo has made kumihimo since 1652. Hear how these cords once tied armor, sutra scrolls, and obi.
Hand-dyed silk in the colors used in Domyo's own products — pick the palette that's yours.
Braid on a marudai, the same stand artisans use, learning Nara-gumi — a pattern whose earliest surviving examples are kept in Nara's Shosoin Imperial Repository and Horyuji Temple.
Finish your cord as a strap or a bracelet, and carry a piece of the day home with you.
Watch
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Sixty minutes
Settle into Kujokan and meet your instructor from Domyo.
Its 1652 origins, and the silk threads you'll choose from.
A demonstration, then Nara-gumi by your own hands, working toward a strap or a bracelet.
Your piece takes shape, questions answered, photos taken.
Choose your finish
Your cord becomes a strap (¥13,000) or a bracelet (¥15,000) — you choose which when you reserve. Both come from the same Nara-gumi technique, finished two different ways to wear.
Bracelets take a little longer to braid, so the final 3:30pm session is strap only.
Your instructor
Domyo has made kumihimo in Tokyo since 1652. Its cords have long appeared in court dress, armor, Buddhist ritual objects, tea ceremony, and obijime sashes — kumihimo has quietly held Japanese life together for centuries.
In this workshop, an instructor from Domyo teaches in English, using the same marudai and hand-dyed silk threads used in the studio's own work — a rare chance to move your hands the way an artisan does, not just watch one work.
You might recognize this
In Your Name. (Kimi no Na wa, 2016), Makoto Shinkai's anime, a kumihimo cord tied in the heroine's hair becomes the story's symbol of connection — the film that introduced kumihimo to audiences worldwide, setting Japanese-film box-office records across East Asia. This workshop doesn't recreate the film; it teaches the same centuries-old craft, from the people who still practice it.
Color & craft
Even the same braid looks completely different in a different color. Calm tones, vivid tones, colors tied to the season — the palette you choose is what makes your piece yours, drawing on the same color sensibility that runs through Japanese textile tradition.
Is this for you
Built for visitors from abroad drawn to Japanese craft, color, and history — and open to anyone in Tokyo who wants the same experience in English.
Getting there
Tokyo National Museum, 13-9 Ueno Park, Taito-ku, Tokyo 110-8712. Enter through the main gate and continue into the garden. Please arrive at Kujokan at least 15 minutes before your session begins.
Reserve
1Choose your finish
2Choose your time (8 guests per session)
You'll continue to our booking page, where you can choose your date, time, and finish (strap or bracelet). Session times and capacity are being finalized with the museum and may be adjusted.
Before you join