Traditional crafts of Tokyo

These artisans representing the Tokyo area crafts were out in force on the 11th floor of the Shinjuku Takashimaya. Not only were they selling  their goods but also in many cases were demonstrating.

I bought a silk scarf from Murayama-Oshima Tsumugi; its a type of shibori I have never seen before. Basically it's 4 sheets of wood with matching grooves in them; folded fabric is place between the wood sheets with the grooves matched up, then clamped, then indigo dyed.

There was a man selling yardage for kimonos; I saw a type of Kasuri that had another name which I didn't catch... He also made pencil cases and wallets from scraps (I bought one!).

Also saw:

• A man weaving small mats; he had the active weaving part on the up end of a board, with the two sheds of the weave over each side, string on bobbins as for kumihimo; after adding a reed, he would switch each of the warp strings.
• A man shaping tortoise shell into combs, ornaments, etc.
• The paper templates used for stenciling dyes or resists onto fabric.
• A man making one of the large traditional musical instruments.
• A kuminhimo marudai with a stunning piece in progress, and an entire booth filled with fairly plan bands (assume for use in traditional dress?)
• Intricate mutlicolored woodblock prints in stunning detail and precision.
• $700 scissors, and I'm sure worth every penny.
• Brushes, brooms, lacquerware, woodcarving, bamboo fishing poles...

Tokyo quilt show

The show is the size of a baseball field filled with quilts and vendors selling quilt materials, kits, patterns, sewing machines, and things that quilters might like.  There were two exhibits I could identify; one was from the International Quilt Study Center in Nebraska, with a collection of mostly 19th century quilts, and an exhibit of Quilts from the Wizard of Oz with a long line, so I never saw it. The rest of the juried quilts were in Traditional, Wa (that were made mostly from Japanese fabrics in a Japanese style),  non-traditional, framed quilts (think art pieces),  juniors, and bags; I did not see a wearable art catagory. Fabric wise, there were old kimonos, pieces of kimonos, shibori, kasuri, all kinds of things that I don't have the knowledge to identify.

The DH and I spent an hour over dinner discussing what was unique to our experience of quilt shows; he's been to several at home. Neither of us have been in years.  What stood out was:






The backgrounds of some of the appliqué quilts had a lovely tonal ombre affect that was stunning.

The color palette in most cases is more subdued, but uses subtle pops of color.

The fabrics often have subtle patterning or interesting combinations of yarns in the weaves. Many of the fabrics are not made-for-quilting fabrics.

The appliqué was exquisite, especially the curves; there seemed to be a lot more small pieces than in our quilts.
Many of the quilts had embroidery on them; some of them were quite heavily embroidered.
The level of workmanship was amazing.

More photos here.

The crowds were pretty intense so we grabbed a bento for lunch from the bento lunch sales people and took a break before diving back in. I bought a purse kit, and I'm going to have issues with the instructions, but if I can pull it off, I'll have a lovely purse.

Travelogue...

I realized that I'll forget the travel details too quickly, so will publish them here... Much of it will be about fiber related things anyways, but some not.

We arrived in Taiwan on Wednesday night from Tokyo. I was disappointed that we were not on the Hello Kitty plane, or the R2D2 plane (which I did see!!!). But hey! I'm in Taipei!

Almost immediately on arrival, we went to Longshan Temple.  Its a very busy temple, with hordes there for their daily devotion and just to check it out.  It's so ornate I was overwhelmed, and so buys watching what was going on that I could not take photos.  Next stop was the Huaxi night market with it's stir fried snake restaurants, and a walk by the "Buddhist Appliances" shops. We left there and hit a local Din Tai Fung for some soup dumplings before crashing for the night.

Thursday I went to the National Palace Museum! Fabulous, but full of tour groups. I'll post photos later. Such a rich collection. What stood out was:

• Pottery and porcelain that was embossed with a pattern on the inside with a carved wooden mold.
• An excellent exhibit detailing the evolution of some of the patterns from representational to geometric.
• The 12 month scroll details including "Praying for skill at weaving". 
• Carved olive pits.
• Lots and lots of jade artifacts plus a full description of how it was carved.
• Carved ivory nested spheres with 24 layers, each one different.

The next day I went to an Beitou, an area with a lot of hot springs. Up the hill a bit from the main town is an old Japanese hotel/onsen, from the days of the Japanese occupation; it's now a private museum devoted to native crafts, especially textiles.  Photos to follow.

And finally, Michael and Rebecca picked us up and took us to a place where we could write our wishes on a lantern and set it loose on the wind! I didn't think to ask for skill at weaving...  but did ask for a gentle 2017 for all of us. Then dinner in Jiufen, and a walk around the amazing beautiful but overly touristy hills. Truly a lovely experience.

OMG Tokyo...

Some of the things we did in Tokyo (well, and outside Tokyo, cause I'm including a trip to Nagoya), not including amazing restaurants but trying to hit all the fiber stuffs, in no particular order. I'm filling in links as I get them posted.

• Random pics of things I've seen in Japan.
• Mingaikan (Japanese Folk Crafts Museum) had their annual exhibition and sale of new works. No pictures were allowed. We saw stunning weaving, shibori, pottery, brooms, baskets. This may have been the highlight of my trip. Amazing.
• I was fleeing Harajuku, walking down that big shopping street that runs right over the Chiyoda line in Omotesando; there was a little shop selling hand woven jackets. Some patterned, some saori, Again, no pics, no name...  I think it was close to the Apple store. My eco print vest was much admired. Language failed.
• Okadaya in Shinjuku is a 9 story? craft store with everything in it. Next door they have 4 or more floors of fabric. 
• National Museum of Art and it's crafts building.
• Arimatsu Narumi ShiboriKaikan Tie dye museum in Arimatsu near Nagoya with stunning Edo period warehouses.  I've posted pictures that my DH took here.  
  

• Toyota Commemorative Museum of Industry and Technology has more looms with iterative improvements and spinning equipment than I have ever seen!!! It covers technologies from the back strap loom and drop spindle on up to very modern machines with an emphasis on early 20th century innovations. Oh yeah, they also have a huge warehouse of automotive stuffs. While you're in Nagoya, eat the traditional Hitsumabushi, or bowl full of eels.
• Kabuki-za. 
• Oji Fox parade on New Years Eve. I found out about it from Time Out Tokyo, which meant all the foreigners in Tokyo also knew about it and half showed up. It's not a costume party or New Years eve ball, it's a family event. Here's a human dressed as a fox dressed as a human and some other photos are here.  We bailed on the parade after some time; it takes and hour to go the small distance between the two shrines in Oji; and ended up seeing some fabulous things which the dark made impossible to photograph. We watched a slow procession of foxes (it looked to be some upper class foxes with their retainers, guards, drummers and pipers), and witnessed families lining up to ring the temple bell and make their prayers at midnight. It was a great experience.
  
•  Cat temple.
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• Jazz shows, particularly http://www.shimpei-musicworld.com/profile and how the language of jazz differs in other countries; I thought the language of music was universal!
• The Cover Nippon in Tokyo Midtown for traditional crafts at a Tokyo Midtown price... I scored an antique silk shibori kimono here for 10000 Yen.