All HIROSHIGE straps are engraved with legendary Ukiyo-e artist Utagawa Hiroshige’s original handwritten poem from an original artwork ca. 1840. The poem is loosely translated as: 'The moon indulges into the night in various ways.' 

Although the straps are priced affordably, they are not machine made, nor do we use pattern cutters. Each strap is hand-cut, and from hand-penciled stencils. It takes 3x longer for each artisan to hand-make and hand-patina HIROSHIGE 三色:Sanshoku. With mono-color patina straps, we choose a pre-dyed base leather closest to the color of the final product, and then add the desired shades for the patina.

For HIROSHIGE 三色:Sanshoku, we have to start with a nude un-dyed base leather, then a base color is applied to the surface followed by a coating to prevent unnecessary color bleeding when the tricolore is applied. Green dye is first applied, and then dried; followed by mustard yellow, then dried; and finally chestnut brown, then similarly dried. A lot of care is taken to ensure that each color transitions to the next color in a seamless manner. Another layer of coating is then applied to ensure color fastness and vibrancy. Anticatura patina technique is then applied to darken the edges of each color - black for the green layer; dark orange for the mustard layer, and dark brown for the chestnut layer. After drying, a final coating is applied to seal and protect the strap and colors.