Attire that has been restored to date was not made using the methods of the Heian Period. This is because the methods of making attire of the Heian Period have not been passed down to modern times and it was only possible to decipher literature and other materials written from the Edo Period onward by reading.
This project aims to recreate the world of attire appearing in Japanese culture that extends from the days of the Heian Period and “The Tale of Genji” by restoring the attire of “Akashi no Kimi,” a character appearing in the Tale of Genji, under the guidance and supervision of experts from various fields.

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Kodo, or "the way of fragrance," is form of traditional Japanese culture in which slithers of fragrant wood are burned to enjoy the fragrance.
After incense appeared in Japan around the time that Buddhism was introduced in the Nara Period, the fragrance of incense was highly prized in the Heian Period and became a daily commodity for refined games in the court and aristocratic society, going on to become a form of art.
Kodo comprises two elements; So-called “Monko,” or apppreciating incense by sniffing its fragrance, and Kumiko, a kind of game in which participants try to distinguish between the fragrances of different kinds of incense.
“Genji-ko,” a type of Kumiko with its roots in The Tale of Genji, was formed in the Edo Period. Five different type of incense are each divided into five small packets, making a total of twenty-five packets, five of which are selected at random and the incense they contain burned. The participants must determine which scents are different and which are the same and record this in the form of patterns. Each pattern is comprised of five vertical lines representing each scent, combined with horizontal lines. There are 52 types of pattern, each bearing one of the names of one of the 54 chapters of The Tale of Genji with the exception of Kiritsubo and Yume no Ukihashi, or “The Floating Bridge of Dreams.”

“Emon” refers to putting on attire of the Heian Period such as “Ikan Sokutai (full Japanese court dress)” and ”Juni Hitoe (twelve-layered ceremonial kimono)” in a way that shows off its beauty and dignity, while “Emondo,” meaning “the way of dressing” is an art that combines usages and practices relating to the attire of the ancient Japanese court.
Together with the Yamashina school, the Takakura School of Emondo who supervised the restoration of attire on this project oversees matters concerning attire in the modern-day imperial household and played a leading role in events surrounding the current emperor’s accension to the throne in 2019.