SHOGUN STUDIO JAPAN

This studio opened in August 2026 on the ground floor of Hotel Emion Kyoto. Visitors dress in armour or in hand-painted kimono and take tea in a proper tea room, and a professional photographer works through the session.

The company runs a second studio at Arashiyama, where the photography is done outdoors among the bamboo and the bridges. This one keeps everything under one roof, which makes it independent of the weather.

The armour is made by Marutake, a workshop whose pieces are used in films and television, including the year-long historical dramas. The suits follow the harnesses of Sengoku commanders, among them Tokugawa Ieyasu and Takeda Shingen, and staff fit them to the wearer. Children's suits are made to the same standard, so a whole family can be dressed. Swords and bows are handled for the photographs.

Anyone who wants to own one can ask: the company sells Marutake's armour as its authorised agent, so a suit can be tried before it is bought.

The kimono are hand-painted Kyoto yuzen, dyed one at a time by craftsmen of the city. The best of them are worth something close to two million yen.

There is a proper tea room in the studio, and teachers from the Urasenke, Omotesenke and Yabunouchi schools give the ceremony there to visitors in armour or kimono. An interpreter works alongside the teacher.

Two ways of taking part are offered. In one the teacher serves and talks about the manners and the thinking behind them, and about the long connection between the tea ceremony and the warrior class. In the other the visitor is taught to handle the whisk and make a bowl of thin tea. Both come with sweets from Sasaya Iori, a Kyoto confectioner in business since the middle of the Edo period, and with photographs taken during the session.

Admission: The price depends on what is worn and what is done. A tea gathering with the teacher is 18,000 yen a head, and making your own bowl of matcha 16,500. The armour comes in three classes, and the class chosen moves the price. A portrait session in the studio adds 8,500 yen. Payment is made at the studio rather than at booking, and nothing is charged for cancelling.