Hiroshima is known for its denim. But the denim being made here may not be the kind of denim you know!

How are pearls processed? Prized Akoya pearls are sorted in front of a north-facing window, where the low-angled natural light reveals any scratches and irregularities, and practiced artisans recognize flaws as slight as a tenth of a millimeter.

Look closely through the translucent sheen of any Akoya pearl and you’ll see a rainbow of colors—a joint gift from the growers, the oysters, and the sea itself. But how are they produced?

Swords have been forged in this Gifu Prefecture town since the late Kamakura Period. Now the same traditions are being applied to some of the best knives you can hope to find.

Working by hand at scales that can at times only be seen with a magnifying glass, these two artisans are heirs to a 400-year-old legacy of woodworking in Ishikawa Prefecture.

A mountainous land dotted with hot springs, Yamanaka in Ishikawa Prefecture is a major center of lacquerware production, thanks to woodturners who emigrated to this area 400 years ago.

If you're looking for custom, hand-dyed fabrics, these three specialists in Sumida-ku, Tokyo, are dyeing to set you up!

Place an order with a swatch or color chip, and shops in this Tokyo district will delve into a formidable databank of colors amassed over the history of the craft to instantly dye your fabric to the exact color of the sample.