In Kyoto, 27-year-old Kengo Banba is revitalizing his family's 150-year-old dyeing workshop by adapting the prestigious kuro-zome black dyeing technique to Western clothing. Facing near closure due to his grandfather's illness, his mother took over the business, and now Banba continues the legacy with a pursuit of a shade 'blacker than black'.
In Kyoto's Nakagyo Ward, near the site where 16th-century warlord Oda Nobunaga met his end, the Banba Senkogyo workshop draws on Yanagi no Mizu, a spring water rich in iron and favored by tea master Sen no Rikyu. This water is ideal for the family's specialty, kuro-zome black dyeing. Kengo Banba, 27, joined the business nearly three years ago and became the sixth-generation head in January 2023 at age 24.
The technique, established in Kyoto in the 19th century, dyes silk fabrics solid black for prestigious formal kimono with family crests, worn by kabuki actors and sumo wrestlers. Founded in 1870, the workshop initially used plant dyes like logwood for a brownish black. The third-generation owner achieved deeper tones with chemical dyes, and Banba's grandfather, Kozo Banba—the fourth generation, who died in 2008 at 74—invented shumeiguro, a deep black acclaimed by kimono wearers.
In 2006, Kozo's lung cancer diagnosis with a two-year prognosis led him to prepare to close the workshop. His daughter, Maki Banba, 60 and Banba's mother, took over instead. Amid declining demand for black-dyed kimono, the former textile designer began dyeing Western clothes, capitalizing on reuse trends. Orders surged, and she managed alone while raising three children, never pressuring them to join.
Banba, who studied architecture and worked at a furniture manufacturer making mirrors, showed no initial interest despite childhood visits to the workshop. At around 21, after his mother dislocated her shoulder amid over 1,000 orders, she asked for help. He started assisting weekends from Osaka, learning dyeing from scratch. A frustrating jeans dyeing order, where the customer repeatedly demanded a darker shade, sparked his commitment.
Banba dyes items per his mother's guidelines on ideal black shades but struggles constantly, drawing encouragement from his grandfather's research notebooks found in the warehouse. 'There are so many valuable items left by my predecessors. Our techniques were achieved only after dozens of trials and experiments,' he said. 'I realized that black dyeing must never be forgotten.'
Seeking advancement, Banba researches a new shumeiguro for Western clothing, experimenting with dye volumes, water, and drying methods amid orders. After numerous failures, he recently achieved a black he's somewhat satisfied with. His mother, with pride, called it 'such a beautiful black.' Banba remains humble: 'It's still not good enough. I want to create a black that won’t fade in sunlight or over time, that people can wear without worrying about the color fading.'
Whether for kimono or Western wear, his goal is a color 'blacker than black.' 'As fewer and fewer people wear formal kimono, it’s vital to preserve the black dyeing technique by applying it to Western clothing,' Banba said. Considering reviving formal kimono too, his ambitions are boundless. Though his journey as a craftsman has just begun, his passion already upholds Kyoto's cultural weight.
