Kyo-yuzen is a Kyoto dyeing tradition characterized by multi-color gradations and fine detail applied over silk. Of all Kyo-yuzen produced today, hand-painted work accounts for only around ten percent — the rest is screen-printed or stenciled. Sairin, the dyeing house behind Ritofu, has practiced hand-painted Kyo-yuzen for generations; their work has been worn by members of the Japanese Imperial Family. The company uses a wide brush rather than the narrow brush standard in the field, allowing color to penetrate deeper into the silk fiber and producing a depth that surface application cannot replicate.
Ritofu is Sairin's original brand, created to bring these techniques out of the formal kimono context and into everyday use — full kimono alongside clutch bags, pouches, and accessories made from the same dyed silk. Tomoko Fujii, who took over as president in 2020 from her father Hiroshi Fujii, one of the master dyers of his generation, describes the logic plainly: the techniques and aesthetic sensibility that went into formal kimono are not less valuable when applied to something smaller. For people outside Japan, the smaller objects offer a way in.
