An interior designer in California is wondering how she can get some fabric — "preferably the Kyoto brocade known as Nishijin-ori" — woven to order in Japan. "I'm working on a house owned by a couple of Japanophiles, and they have very specific ideas for what they want."
He/she (unspecified) is lucky, but only if their clients read Japanese. If not they will have to seek help . . . to get to grips with a new Kansai-based Web site in Japanese.
It is an online directory designed to connect artisans with customers, and Kyoto's hope is that eventually it will read like a Who's Who in the Japanese craft world.