The origins of Okajima are not in textiles, but in medicine. Originally operating as a wholesaler of medicinal herbs, the company occupied a unique position within Kyoto’s commercial ecosystem. This trade, unusually for the time, granted access to imported European chemical dyes well before they became widely available in Japan. In the late Edo and early Meiji periods, it was not unusual for the making of a single kosode (kimono) to take five or even six years. With the arrival of chemical dyes, however, the dyeing process became dramatically more efficient; what had been an artisanal practice began to evolve into an industry. It was in this moment of transition that Usaburo Okajima saw something others did not. Where many viewed chemical dyes as a technical novelty, he understood their cultural implication. If production could accelerate, kimono could move beyond the realm of exclusivity and enter the lives of a broader public.

Usaburo Okajima became one of the early masters of kata-yūzen, a stencil-based dyeing technique that uses hand-cut templates and colored paste to build layered compositions. This method remains at the heart of Okajima’s identity today. The contemporary stencil dyeing process was typically achieved using no more than five or six stencils in total, with essentially one stencil per color. Okajima’s approach is radically more complex: a single design may require 15 stencils, in some cases more than 20, layered sequentially onto the fabric. This is what gives the design a remarkable depth, producing a layered richness and dimensionality that simply cannot be achieved through dyeing with only a few stencils.

There is one particular story that speaks to the character of Jūsuke Okajima. In 1957, when the system of Important Intangible Cultural Properties—what is commonly known as the Living National Treasure designation—was formally established, Jūsuke was recommended in recognition of his achievements, yet he declined the honor. His reason was simple and unwavering:

“Kyō-yūzen is a total art form created through the hands of many artisans. It is not something for which one person alone can accept an award.”

Everyday life in Japan was visibly changing. Recognizing that shift earlier than most, Shigeo made an intentional decision: not to preserve the past unchanged, but to redefine it.

“The first thing we did was reverse the process; we moved from stencil dyeing toward hand painted yūzen. That sold quite well. After that, what I kept focusing on was creating products nobody else was making. I wanted to open up entirely new markets. At the time, if I brought something like a stole to our clients, they wouldn’t take it seriously because that kind of product didn’t exist in distribution yet. But once I persuaded them to give it a try, it sold like crazy. The bad habit in this industry, though, was that everyone would eventually imitate it.”

The fourth generation recognized value in Okaju not merely as a kimono-related business, but as a textile brand capable of transcending the boundaries of kimono itself. Guided by that vision, he developed something that did not yet exist at the time: bags decorated with hand-painted yūzen. He then launched a new brand under the name Okajima.