Arimatsu-Narumi Tie-Dyeing

Experience Arimatsu's
everlasting tie-dyeing culture

Tie-dyeing is a dyeing technique which remains since antiquity. Arimatsu-Narumi Tie-Dyeing is even designated as a national traditional craft, and Arimatsu is known as holder of the greatest number of tie-dyeing techniques the world over.
You are sure to run into a variety of tie-dyes from traditional to contemporary styles after walking around town from the historic Tokaido Road.
Learn about tie-dyeing at the Arimatsu-Narumi Tie-Dyeing Museum, where items are both on display and available for purchase, and see actual traditional tie-dyeing craftsmen as they work. You can even tie-dye a handkerchief, scarf, or other such accessory at various tie-dye studios around town.

Townscape

Arimatsu's townscape as depicted
in woodblock prints

Arimatsu's townscape is built along the Tokaido Road and is highly valued as a national important preservation district for groups of traditional buildings. It is the ideal place to take a stroll with sights like monuments engraved with lines of Japanese poetry placed as an accent to the area's ambiance.
Most wonderous of all may be that the townscape is left virtually unchanged from that illustrated in woodblock prints from the Edo period and depicted in the Shank's Mare just as the story's characters, Yaji and Kita, saw it.
Arimatsu's tie-dye shops have more spacious frontages compared to those of other regions, and the buildings' heights are lower as a means of keeping their indigo tie-dye products from fading in the sun—two very characteristic traits. These spectacles are something you need to see for yourself.

Festivals

Immerse yourself in the traditional culture
of Arimatsu's festivals

Watch the tie-dyed fabrics created through meticulous work dance wildly in the wind throughout the town during Arimatsu's Tie-Dye Festival in June, or be swept away with the sound of flutes and drums as mechanized karakuri dolls dance atop three parade floats at the Grand Autumn Festival at Arimatsu Temman Shrine (Arimatsu Float Festival) in October. Flocks of people come to view these popular and lively events every year, and when night comes during the Grand Autumn Festival, the floats light their paper lanterns for an especially magical scene.
The Grand Autumn Festival's floats became part of the festival as symbols of this community's prosperity from the tie-dyeing industry, and all three of them feature karakuri dolls—a characteristic of parade floats in Nagoya and the surrounding area.

Shopping and cuisine

Enjoy shopping in Arimatsu just like Yaji and Kita

The two main characters, Yaji and Kita, of the classic Japanese novel Shank's Mare, visited the town of Arimatsu on their pilgrimage to Ise Grand Shrine as they came from the east, walking along the Tokaido Road. And although people now use trains, you can still get to the same location after a walk south from Arimatsu Station. There, you can do just as Yaji did by purchasing a tie-dye hand towel—a famous souvenir of the Tokaido Road.
This area also pours its tie-dying ingenuity into creating winter and summer kimonos as well as western clothing, accessories, decorations, and other products available for sale at numerous shops. Step into Yaji's shoes and look for your own special souvenir.
You can also find vintage shops which have been renovated into cafes and restaurants. There are also old shops which have been changed into guest houses should you choose to stay the night.