As an expert dyer of Edo-komon-style kimonos whose repeated, especially intricate patterns are often so tiny as to be almost microscopic, Emika Iwashita is a mistress of subtlety and the tiniest detail.
The independent Tokyo-based artist's specialty is stencil-dyeing, which requires just the right amount of constant pressure with her right hand as she glides a wooden spatula across the paper stencil covering a 13-meter-long, 30-cm-wide roll of heavy silk fabric.
"If I change my pressure, even by just a little, it affects the shades of colors," Iwashita, 39, said recently at her studio as she demonstrated her hand-dyeing techniques.