KYOTO -- What do traditional Kyoto and broadband Internet access have in common? Not much, which is the problem. The solution is the Kyoto Nishijin Machiya Studio.
This traditional "machiya," a two-story wooden town house with some 500 sq. meters of floor space as well as outdoor gardens, is the birthplace of an ambitious endeavor: to wield information technology as a magic carpet transporting traditional Kyoto industries into the digital era.
As its name indicates, the Machiya Studio is located in the heart of Nishijin, the Kyoto neighborhood long famed for kimono-related weaving and dyeing. This area has been hit hard by the dual blow of a limp economy and ever fewer Japanese donning kimono. No one wants Kyoto's wealth of textile arts to die out, but few have realistic ideas about how to revitalize them.