Yugen Studio

Yugen Studio is a dedicated rope venue in the Crescenzago area of Milan, reached from Metro Line 2, that hosts workshops, performances, photography sessions and community events. It is run by Kirigami and Tenshiko, with help from students and members of the local scene, under their association Kiri Nawa Kai APS. The pair, who have worked together since 2011, ran a smaller venue in central Milan from 2016 to 2020 before opening Yugen Studio in 2020, and their teaching room there was finished in 2021.

The space

The venue lists a 40-tatami working area, 16 double hard points and four hashira, plus a social area with parquet flooring and a lounge where participants meet before and after sessions. It is the home of School of Rope’s courses and of the Rope Tales jams and salon evenings, and it welcomes people interested in Japanese culture and photography as well as rope practitioners.

International program

Yugen Studio’s own program centers on guests from Italy and abroad, especially Japanese teachers, performers and photographers, and on projects run between Milan and Tokyo. From November 28 to December 7, 2025 it held a Hashira International Week with the Basel-based teacher Ropu Nawa, which the studio framed around the shared influence of Naka Akira on both teaching teams. Upcoming workshops listed as of November 2026 include the second edition of an international workshop for rope bottoms (December 4 to 6, 2026) and a weekend titled “Without the Gote” (January 23 and 24, 2027). For February 2027 the studio sells a photography workshop in Tokyo with the photographer Sugiura Norio and Naka Akira.

Publishing

The studio publishes and distributes books, magazines and independent publications that grow out of its collaborations, among them Yugen Studio Magazine, which Rope Tales describes as a limited print run distributed in more than 25 countries. According to Rope Tales, Kirigami also works with Sugiura Norio on photographic and editorial projects and became the first person living outside Japan to be invited to tie for Sugiura’s Kinbaku Sajiki project.