On par with the techniques of the Como region of Italy, the Yokohama Nassen dyeing method has over 120 years of history and is highly esteemed.

Many foreign trading companies set up shop here when the ports of Yokohama opened to foreign trade in 1859.

Woodblock printers, who had until then produced ukiyo-e and labels for export tea boxes, moved here, incorporating superior woodblock printing techniques of the East and West to develop the Yokohama Nassen printing technique.

Artisans from all over Japan gathered together to compete on their craft, absorbing foreign knowledge as they established the modern Yokohama Nassen technique.

A trading and distribution center of silk, Yokohama was blessed with favorable weather conditions and water resources, and became a major area of production for printing.

It was during this era that hamamonyo was founded as a printing factory in 1948.

hamamonyo was born out of the experience of accumulating original technology for dyeing scarves and handkerchiefs produced locally in Yokohama while exporting products overseas as well.Nassen Printing, including yuzen and T-shirt printing, dyes cloth using a mold, but hamamonyos Nassen printing method known as “Yokohama’s traditional Nassen stencil dyeing”.

Yokohama Nassen is an advanced technique cultivated over years of dyeing silk scarves in dozens of colors using dozens of molds. For hamamonyo’s tenugui, we produce a Nassen mold for the design, then dye our original cotton fabric using reactive dyes.