About Kiso Studios

I’m Ian Ferguson. I’m from the US and have lived in Japan since 2017, first in Ena, Gifu and now in Aichi. Kiso Studios is where I release the software I build.

It started because I kept making small tools to fix my own problems: a quick way to pull colors and fonts off a website, a map that shows the places in Japan I would actually want to visit. Some of them turned out to be useful to other people, so I started releasing them properly.

The studio is named after the Kiso River, which runs along the border between Aichi and Gifu. The colors come from the same area. The green is for the hinoki cypress forests of the Kiso Valley, and the gold is for the kinshachi, the golden ornaments on the roof of Nagoya Castle.

I follow a few simple rules for everything I release. Each product does one job. Your data stays on your device or in your own accounts wherever possible. Paid features are a one-time purchase, not a subscription.

Right now that means Mitsukeru, a toolkit for web designers, and NipponNavi, a map of Japan for travelers. A few more are in development, and you can see all of them on the products page.

If you have questions or feedback, you can reach me at hello@kisostudios.com.