Yanaka UpCraft Studio

A kimono-upcycling studio on the Yanaka side of Nishinippori, run by Daniel Schneider and his wife. Families choose from a rail of real kimonos, yukata and obi — silks with a life already behind them — and cut, fold and assemble a piece of one into something they take home the same hour. Nothing is reproduction fabric and nothing is a kit: the pattern on a finished box is the pattern somebody once wore. Sessions are small by design, four workstations in one room, and run in English with Japanese available. Children work alongside a parent throughout — this is a workshop the family does together, not a class a child is left at.