Ever heard of a Prada phone? Or, worse, an Armani phone? According to Mobile Ojisan's lopsided view, genuine lumps of idiocy. Solid pieces of illusion, driven by not electrons but by pretension.

What, you've got one already! Er... in that case, I retract from my word and apologize.

DECO-ed and personalized Sony VAIO Type T. Traditional Kyoto Yuzen-zome beauty on your lap.

Ah well, some women (even some men, too!) eagerly spit out tons of their good money for a cheapo plastic bag with funny logo printed on it. Compared to those air bags, silly phones have got, at least, some concrete ICs and circuit boards in them. All the same, nothing can ratify their stratospheric price tag.

Then, how about personalized gear? Millions of people decorate their mobile phones according to their own taste, by applying stickers, painting with lacquer, attaching bunch of pretty straps and encasing in colorful sheaths. Nice things to do, I guess.

Not many people decorate their own PCs, though. It's strange, because these days your laptop sometimes occupies more important position than, say, your spouse or children.

One artisan does it for your beloved computer. Well, in Japan, the boundary between artist and artisan is very much blurred. Skilled artisans receive more reverence than mere skilled artists. Look at the culinary art. The best sushi professionals, almost an artist level, are still called sushi artisan in Japan, never a sushi chef.

Anyway, the artisan is Hayashi UFO-san, of Yuzen-zome dyeing/printing.

Yuzen-zome is a textile dyeing technique established in Kyoto around 300 years ago, by master dyer Miyazaki Yuzen. Consisting of hand-painting and applying resist paste made of glutinous rice. Sounds familiar? Yes, basically, it's the same dyeing method as lovely Indonesian batik, though batik utilizes resist wax instead of plant paste.

Similarity ends there. Sophistication and gorgeousness of Yuzen-zome are comparable to Nissan's new GT-R, whearas the best batik's Tata Nano.

Back to the subject again. UFO-san started a new technique called "Crystall Art", printing and stabilizing traditional Yuzen-zome patterns on hard surface, using transparent plastic resin. Very suitable for the back panel of laptop PC.

First, base transparent resin is applied	Gold dust sprinkled, then cherry blossom petals are stenciled

With his Crystall Art, he has co-operated with Sony on a few occasions, decorating some VAIO laptops. This time, UFO-san cooked Sony VAIO Type T. At his Tokyo workshop.

UFO-san hand-painting.	Blow-up. 3D effect is quite evident.

After a few days of intensive work, personalized VAIO came back. The product is not an illusion, nor inflated air. A solid piece of good work. You can see it clearly.

But how about the remuneration? UFO-san was a bit embarrassed and murmured in a low voice.

"Er... something around 100,000 yen (US$960). A little too much?"

Not at all. Yes, he is a true and genuine artisan.

By the way, he does mobile phones and PDAs, too. Since the work surface is rather small, it costs only around 10,000 yen (US$96). The work is done on the spot, only a day at most.

Some of UFO-san's works on K-tai.

 

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