In the middle of the Edo period, Shobei Kondaya (Shobei Yashiro), the founder of the original house “Kondaya’’, founded a draper’s shop at Muromachi Nijyo Reisencho in the 5th year of the Kyoho era (1720).
In the course of time, Kanbei Kondaya (Kanbei Matsui), the founder of “Konkan Shoten (store)’’, was granted a licence and founded a branch shop independently during the Horeki era.
Under the trade name “Kondaya’’, we operate the business of manufacture and wholesale of gold-brocaded silk fabrics or gold-brocaded cloth, which are mainly used for clerical garments, in our original hometown, today’s Reisencho near the Kyoto Gyoen (Kyoto Imperial Garden).
At the age a few decades before appearance of woven kimono-belts or Yuzen dyeing, the lineage of Kondaya was well-established, consisting of the head family Kondaya and the branch house of Kondaya Jimbei, both of which were headquartered in Reisencho, and, by the late Edo period, it had grown into one of the influential lineages representing Kyoto. Incidentally, also the head office of Mitsui-Echigoya was headquartered here in Reisencho.
Since its foundation, Kinkan Shoten has dealt in the silk fabrics, called Kinran in Japan, which are made of raw silk of the highest quality and are woven manually by many artisans of Nishijin textile.
Materials of good quality are the requirement for Japanese traditional textiles. That is to say, we do not use any material other than genuine silk, let alone synthetic fibers like rayon. And therefore, when it comes to Kinran (silk fabrics), we take great pride in offering “what other Japanese companies do not have.’’
Thus, we have inherited the traditional material and technique and have handed down Japanese silk textile in an authentic way. But, along with it, to adapt ourselves to changing ages and demand, we take the challenge as well to make a new feeling and unique designs and, creating the form of expression like fabrics or interior fabrics, we engage ourselves in manufacturing.
Among others, the kinran of our company has the largest market share of the costumes used for the wooden hina dolls of Edo and the hina dolls of Kyoto.
The current head, Yukio Matsui, is the 13th owner of “Kondaya’’ Konkan Shoten.