GOLDREAM KYOTO | Bringing Gold Leaf Craftsmanship from Cultural Heritage into Modern Life
BRAND HISTORIES
Gold leaf pressing has quietly illuminated temples and cultural properties in Kyoto. One workshop carries this craft forward while bringing a new light into contemporary life.
The Work of Gold Leaf Pressing Behind Kyoto’s Beauty
Buddhist statues, ritual fittings, temple ornamentation, and historic architecture all rely on a craft in which thin sheets of gold leaf are applied one by one.
Gold leaf pressing is not simply decoration. The amount of lacquer, the timing of drying, the position of the leaf, and the force of the brush all must be judged with precision so that the gold settles evenly and beautifully.
GOLDREAM KYOTO is created by Kinpakuoshi Yamamura, founded in Kyoto in 1949. The workshop has worked on temples and cultural properties including Sensoji, Chion-in, Nishi Honganji, and the Akasaka Palace.
Behind the visible brilliance is a level of handwork so delicate that much of it remains unseen.
Opening the Craft to Daily Life
GOLDREAM KYOTO was launched from a desire to share Kyoto’s gold leaf pressing, a technique passed down since the Kamakura period, with more people.
A craft used in the restoration of temples and cultural properties is not often encountered directly in everyday life. That is why the workshop chose not only to preserve the technique, but also to transform it into new forms.
The name combines “GOLD” and “DREAM.” It carries the artisans’ wish to continue sharing Kyoto’s world-class techniques and the beauty inherited from the past.
Lacquer, Gold Leaf, and the Artisan’s Touch
The main materials used in gold leaf pressing are lacquer and gold leaf. GOLDREAM KYOTO uses 23K kanazawa entsuke gold leaf, a material also used in cultural property restoration.
Traditional tools such as human-hair lacquer brushes, bamboo tweezers, and dusting brushes are used while reading the condition of the lacquer, humidity, and the character of each surface.
Lacquer
Used as the adhesive that allows the gold leaf to settle. The amount and drying time greatly affect the finish.
Entsuke Gold Leaf
23K gold leaf from Kanazawa, valued for its delicate depth and used even in cultural property restoration.
Artisan Sensibility
Gold leaf is handled one sheet at a time with bamboo tools and brushes. The sensitivity of the hand cannot easily be replaced by machines.
Artisans Supporting Cultural Heritage
The workshop is led by second-generation artisan Takashi Nakazawa and third-generation artisan Masami Yamada, together with other craftspeople devoted to gold leaf pressing.
Nakazawa has long supported temple and cultural property restoration as a traditional craftsperson. Yamada has been recognized as a “Future Master,” continuing to refine the craft for the next generation.
Restoration requires the ability to return old works to their original appearance without placing the artisan’s individuality first. In GOLDREAM KYOTO’s own works, the inherited technique can be combined with freer imagination.
Small Works That Bring Traditional Technique Within Reach
GOLD LEAF BOOKMARK
Gold Leaf Bookmark
This bookmark is made from a real rubber tree leaf reduced to its delicate veins, with gold leaf applied to each fine line.
The natural pattern of the leaf and the artisan’s gold leaf work create a unique expression in every piece. Developed over about two years, it can be enjoyed both as a bookmark and as a small work of art.
LUMIÈRE HOZUKI LIGHT
Lumière Hozuki Light
A hozuki plant is reduced to its veins, covered with gold leaf, and sealed inside transparent acrylic as an interior object.
When lit, the delicate veins and gold leaf softly emerge. Hozuki has long been used in Japan during Obon as a light guiding ancestral spirits, and this work reinterprets that memory for modern spaces.
From Kyoto to the Next Era
Restoring cultural properties requires the ability to preserve inherited techniques with precision. Passing those techniques into the future also requires imagination that can meet contemporary life.
GOLDREAM KYOTO carries both. Using lacquer, gold leaf, traditional tools, and the sensitivity of the hand, it gives new brilliance to leaves, hozuki, and familiar forms from nature.
Gold leaf that once illuminated temples
now quietly lights a book, a room, and daily life.
A technique inherited in Kyoto begins another story
within the spaces where people live today.
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