NYTM 2025 Multiple Days Events
京藍 Kyō-ai: Living indigo from Kyoto by Riku Matsuzaki
In person / Exhibition / Dyeing
This exhibition explores Riku Matsuzaki’s revival of Kyoto’s lost indigo through traditional fermentation and dyeing, expressing the unseen world of microbes and the oneness of all life.
Riku Matsuzaki, a Kyoai (Kyoto Indigo) artist, has revived “Kyoai,” a once-lost indigo tradition that disappeared from Kyoto over 100 years ago. Using only water, wood ash, and tade-ai (Japanese indigo), he grows himself organic way, he brings the color back to life through traditional fermentation. His work expresses the unseen world of microorganisms—small particle-like beings—that make the deep blue of indigo possible.
Without fermentation, the liquid is nothing more than brown water. But through it, living microbes—sensitive and ever-changing—transform it into vibrant blue. Matsuzaki engages in a quiet dialogue with them each day, through shifts in scent, texture, and surface movement. “Sometimes they feel soft and gentle, other times intense—just like people, whose moods change from day to day,” he says.
With melted beeswax from native Japanese honeybees and techniques like shibori, Matsuzaki paints and dyes to express this hidden universe of life. Within a single indigo vat lies a microcosm. To him, the microorganisms living in the dye are no different from us living on Earth. “Everything is connected. Everything is one. That’s what I believe.”
At this exhibition, his works will be available for purchase, along with originally designed apparel (some available for pre-order).
No registration required.
Exhibition: Sept 5, 2025 - Oct 5, 2025
Reception: Thursday, Oct 2, 2025, 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Riku Matsuzaki is an indigo artist and craftsman who revived “Kyo-ai,” a lost Kyoto indigo dye tradition that had vanished for over 100 years. At age 22, he was struck by the term “Japan Blue” while in New York and chose to pursue dyeing after returning to Japan. He apprenticed under Yukio Yoshioka, the fifth-generation master of a 200-year-old Kyoto dye workshop. After Yoshioka’s passing, Matsuzaki began cultivating indigo on a 350 sqft plot of land using traditional, chemical-free methods. He practices a sustainable cycle where even waste dye is returned to the soil. In 2024, he was named one of Forbes JAPAN’s 30 Culturepreneurs and collaborated with Valextra, a high-end Italian leather brand.