About Kage Media
it started with a camera and genuine curiosity. The experiences came after years of showing up.
The story
For centuries, the crafts surrounding the katana were passed between masters and kept inside specific lineages. They were not offered to outsiders, and they were not easy to find even for those who looked.
We came to Japan as filmmakers, genuinely curious about who the people were who still practiced these crafts and how they worked.
The documentary work brought us into workshops in and around Nara Prefecture, and the relationships that came from that took years to build properly. We kept returning, and over time these genuine masters we worked with became willing to share more, letting a small number of visitors into the spaces where they work.
Along the way, we recognized that documenting a craft and sustaining it are two different things. Interest alone does not create income for the craftsmen being documented. The model that made sense was one where every booking translated directly into earnings for the master leading the session. That is what Kage Media became.
About the owner
Ken is Taiwanese-American and has been visiting Japan since childhood. He studied kung fu for years before coming there to film, and the katana world was the entry point that brought everything together: craft, history, and the kind of discipline that can only be passed between people over time.
He is the one who reads every inquiry and builds the day around what you share. His relationships with the masters are what make the experiences what they are, built carefully over years and held with a level of respect that shapes how every visit runs.
How it works
When you reach out, we read your inquiry personally and build a day around what you share: your travel dates, group size, experience level, and what drew you here. Some visitors want a single session; others want two or three days across different crafts. Some know exactly what they are looking for, and others come with a general sense of curiosity and let us suggest what fits. The day we propose reflects what you share in that first message, and most visits take shape over several exchanges.
Every experience is led by the master, with both a specialist translator and a guide present throughout who is specifically trained for katana and sword-craft terminology. Once your visit is confirmed, you receive everything you need in advance: timing, what to wear, directions, and context about the master and the craft.
How we Operate
The word we come back to is gratitude: grateful that the masters agreed to open their workshops, and committed to representing that access honestly. The experiences are offered in small groups, because the quality of what happens in those rooms depends on keeping them that way.
Kage Media is a fully licensed Travel Agency operating in Nara Prefecture, a structure we pursued deliberately as a long-term commitment to operating in Japan with full legitimacy.