What We Hold Dear
Four things Studio Kokoro Arashiyama cherishes
How do we shape a day for becoming the you you imagine? We share it in four parts: craft, hospitality, originality, and respect for culture.
Values 01 Craft
Hair and makeup, dressing, photography — each in specialist hands.
It takes three specialties to create a single look.
Hair and makeup are tailored to your features and your chosen attire. Applying white powder, fitting a wig — every step is prepared for that one photo of the day.
Dressing is done to each guest’s own height. For the Maiko experience we never use a ready-made obi; we tie all seven meters by hand.
The shoot takes place on a dedicated set, with the photographer suggesting angles and poses. Even first-timers can simply relax and leave it to us.
- Hair & makeup
- Tailored to your features and attire, prepared just for the day.
- Dressing
- Tied by hand to your height — never a ready-made obi.
- Photography
- We suggest angles and poses, and include the final retouching.
Values 02 Hospitality
First-time or returning, we welcome every guest with the same heart.
Whether you arrive nervous, or after a long while away.
A transformation photo is, for many, a rare experience in a lifetime. That is why we guide you through the day step by step, and think it through together whenever you are unsure.
At the same time, some guests return each season. So we can suggest a different look and a new expression from last time, we keep a record to welcome you by.
Guests with children, whole families, visitors from overseas — we prepare so that everyone can enjoy the same time with us.
- Guidance on the day
- We explain each step; no need to worry about what to bring.
- Consultation
- Even if your look isn’t decided, we’ll settle it together as we talk.
- Omotenashi
- Every member of our staff treasures, above all, service that truly moves each guest.
Values 03 Originality
We keep imagining, here in our studio, looks that exist nowhere else.
Day by day, we keep creating transformation experiences you can find only here.
“Kitsune no Yomeiri” (the fox’s wedding) is a look born here, pairing a white bridal robe with a fox mask — a folktale scene reassembled as transformation photography.
“Hyakki Yagyo” draws on Toriyama Sekien’s Gazu Hyakki Yagyo, with hair, makeup and costume crafted for each yokai. We portray them not from fear, but from the side of their beauty.
Our limited-time plans are newly conceived each season. Even within the same year, we never repeat the same look.
- Kitsune no Yomeiri
- A look born here — a white robe and wataboshi, fragile and mysterious.
- Hyakki Yagyo
- Dedicated hair, makeup and costume crafted for each yokai.
- Limited-time
- A new look conceived each season.
Values 04 Respect for culture
We honor each origin, and remake it as today’s transformation photography.
Every attire has the era and place from which it was born.
The Oiran attire grew in the lively pleasure quarters, the Maiko in Kyoto’s hanamachi, the Shinsengumi in the Kyoto of the late Edo period. Each has its own origins, with meaningful ways of tying and wearing.
We begin from those origins, then add adjustments so the look sits beautifully in a photograph. We aim to both preserve and delight.
This is Arashiyama, Kyoto — a place designated a National Historic Site and Place of Scenic Beauty. As a business here, we take care to prepare in a way worthy of the culture we handle.
- Grounded in origins
- We confirm the meaning of the ties and the wearing, then tailor.
- As a photo for today
- We add adjustments so it sits beautifully in a photograph.
- Honoring the origins
- We honor the origins of names and knots, borrowing them as today’s attire.
It all begins with choosing who you’ll become.
Seven transformation plans, from Oiran to Maiko