Kyoto Textile Tour Days 7 and 8

Tour day 7 (March 25) was a free day. A bunch of folks went to the Kitano Tenmangu shrine, where we were early in the week, for a big flea market; I fretted about what was going to fit in my suitcase and opted to sleep in and walk about with my DH.  The tour company gave us plenty of ideas in a handy brochure but we elected to go a little shopping and then walked to a couple of temples I had not seen; the streets were crazy busy, so a zen garden seemed about right.

March 26 photos

We had the honor of visiting Hiroshi Saito, who is an abstract arts using natural dyes and yuzen techniques to create dyed work for clothing and wall pieces. There were a number of fascinating things about this man. First of all, if you were to pronounce his full name, it goes on for minutes.

His work was astounding. This large piece was stretched out across his studio, ready for him to work. He'd already applied 3 types of mordants: alum, copper, and iron to the stretched fabric and let it dry. After we arrived, he applied 3 types of dye; I have that data somewhere and will find it and update here when I do. He applied the dye, one color at a time intuitively and without plan; this piece was in honor of springtime. He'll go back later and add some rice paste resist and more layers of dye until the piece is done.





His wife sews some of the fabrics into shirts, like this one.  There were some pieces that may have gotten some details painted on after as well. He showed us an album of his kimonos; they are truly amazing pieces.

He's also very socially aware. After the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster that hit Japan in 2011, he felt he needed to change to processes that were gentler on the environment, and gave up chemical dyes for natural dyes. He also works in the areas affected by the earthquake to bring art to the region, and he feels it's a necessary part of life and it's too easy for people struggling to recover from a disaster like that to lose focus on things like art. He also works with the disabled to produce textile art since abstract art can be done by people with a wide range of disabilities.

The next stop was Gallery Kei, where we visited Kei Kawasaki and her collection of museum grade antique folk textiles.  She had cloth made from bashofu, hemp, wisteria, linden, and elm; some well over 100 years old; and we got to touch it all. Also, old kimonos,  fabulous boro pieces, and many non-textile antiques. I admired her pieces very much and would encourage any lover of textiles to visit her shop! Here she is showing us how some of the bast fibers are harvested and prepped for weaving.

The rest of the group went to the dyeing museum, which I will visit on my next trip... and then a goodbye dinner, which I elected to skip in favor of returning to Tokyo to see Ossan Live, a very happy Tokyo based band; we went with two other Americans and were the only foreigners in the room.  It was a very nice evening, even though we didn't order the half size salted squid guts at the restaurant after.

The Textile Tour? I highly recommend it to any textile lover; we had a mix of makers and admirers on the trip, probably more admirers than makers... but it appealed to both. We had access to amazing artists and studios; insights into processes from Nancy, who lived in Kyoto and worked there as a fiber artist; and Andy, our guide and translator whose knowledge of and commentary on Japanese culture really took this tour over the top.