March 23 photos
First let me say how honored we were to be able to visit these amazing artists and craftsmen.
This day was
Nishijin day. There are various articles on the web detailing what Nishijin textiles are and how they are made, and there are a number of Youtube videos that are excellent. I'm going to start by roughly outlining the steps as I understood them...
We were honored to be able to visit some amazing artists and craftsmen.
Let's assume an artist has already created a full size drawing of the design repeat for the obi; some obis do not have repeated patterns so then the drawing would be the full length. Obi are generally about 30 cm by about 300 cm (12" by 9.8').
A specialized company pixelates the drawing (this used to be done by hand on graph paper but is often done by computer now) and produces a color plan, weft thread by weft thread, for the weaver, as well as a set of punch cards used in the jacquard loom. The cards are stitched together in order. We visited the Ozasa Company and saw examples of the various steps; I was unable to take photos as the designs are property of their customers.
Then, the designer or customer works with a gold leaf artist to figure out what patterning on the gold leaf will work best with the design, then the gold leaf is applied to washi paper in a multi step process using a liquid extracted from a sumac plant; the artist has to get accustomed to the liquid, otherwise it will itch!!! The gold leaf artist can create different affects using scraps and "gold trash". The gold-leafed washi is cut into very very narrow strips but attached at sides of the paper to keep it in order until it's woven. We met Yasushi Noguchi, who gave us an overview of the process. He told us an interesting story about a commission he once had; the customer wanted his gold leaf sheets to be irregular, like the background in the famous iris work by Korin at the Nezu Museum. No one knew how this was done. He found another pattern his customer like but continued to research and ponder this for years until he finally received some untrimmed sheets of gold leaf and figured it out. I'm not going to detail it here; he described it. but it's pretty in-depth; but there are now scholarly papers authored by Noguchi-san detailing the technique.
Meanwhile, back to the Nishijin Obi. The weaving company pulls the appropriate color of silk from their inventory or contacts with a silk dyer to get the shades they need created. We visited the dye workshop owned by the Okamoto brothers, who custom dye silk yarns for kimono and obi weavers. They use red, yellow, and blue (not sure if they use black as well) to match any color you can bring in, without test runs and apparently without challenges by incrementally adding tiny bits of dye until the right shade is reached.
There are a number of interim steps that we did not see... For example, the warp is sent out to be wound by a warp-winding-specialist before the weaver starts. Apparently the level of specialization is staggering, but the specialization this entails lets each artisan be a master of what he does.
We saw two weaving houses, one that does hand weaving and one that does machine weaving. First, we were in the home and studio of Tatsumura Koho. He believes in having his works hand woven, as it gives greater control over the weft-threads per inch; this would mean he was more control over how the fabric looks and feels. We first saw some of the amazing works he and his family have produces; both wearable and decorative pieces, some reproduction, some artistic. One line of particular note was a series of historic fabrics that they researched, dating back to the 6th and 7th century; they researched how the textile was woven, and what colors must have been used and now can create that fabric again for use in period settings as well as modern interior decorating. Another piece depicts a scene from the Tales of Genji that was not in the original drawings. They spent a year researching period details; clothing, interior design, building architecture; to create a Nishijin woven piece that might authentically depict a scene from that period.
Here's the weaver at work on a manual loom. On each pick, the pattern shed is controlled by the punch cards; the pattern colors for that row are laid in; and the next strip of the gold leaf is laid in. There seemed to be a fine silk weft used as well to lock in the threads after every pattern row. The weaving is done upside down; the weaver is looking at the back side of the fabric, and checks his work in a mirror held under the growing fabric.
We also visited Nagashima Orimono, where we got to tour their wholesale showroom and see powered machine looms at work. The first floor of the building was their yarn stash. Here's a very small amount of the colors that were available. Upstairs was the Obi showroom with hundreds of different obis in all colors and pattern and styles. The patterns were amazing! I didn't take any photos here, I was completely overwhelmed by what I saw. Then on to their weaving studio. Who knew I was such a machinery geek? The looms were fabulous, and noisy, and each attended by someone watching to see if anything went wrong. These machines were computer controlled as opposed to using the punch cards of the other jacquard looms. The mechanism handling the gold leaf washi slices was really interesting!
Our last stop was Hosoo, founded in 1688, a traditional obi and kimono weaver that has entered the high end fashion and interior design market. We saw some of the historic sample boards they've created for imperial and high end clients... They're now also creating wider fabrics (obis are about 12" and kimono fabric no more then 14") in traditional and more modern patterns using the traditional weaving techniques. They're also home to Japan Handmade, a collaboration of 6 Kyoto craft families to create new uses for the objects made in the traditional way; a couple of examples are champagne buckets made with the old-style bucket making techniques and copper wire baskets made with the same methods used to make strainers.
March 24 photos
OMG it was cold today. I'm going to jump ahead to say that although it didn't precipitate heavily, there was some form of water falling occasionally from the sky and much of that was snow. I'm not complaining but I really didn't have all the right clothes for standing outside most of the day; I think I need to rethink my March packing strategy to include some emergency cold gear!
We went by taxi to Ohara, a little farm village about 30 minutes or so northeast of Kyoto. Our first stop was the farmers market which has an amazing array of vegetables I did not recognize! Plus some most excellent mochi filled with bean paste and some lovely handmade items, including a lovely purse which is now mine.
We walked from there to Ohara Kobo, a natural dye studio, where we heard a lecture on natural dyeing and were able to dye our own scarves! I did solid indigo blue but a few people did some really lovely tie dye. Using four colors; indigo for blue, madder for red, some plant for yellow, and another for brown which I did not recognize, they can make most colors; colors are not vat mixed, but the object is dyed in one color then the other. They had lovely dyed items for sale, many woven locally, so the yarn you see hanging here was not destined to come home with me...
Lunch was at Wappado, where we got a country style set menu. It was nearly all vegetarian except for a small amount of fish and all delicious. This was the second of five courses. One of the courses was a spring onion and chrysanthemum leaf pizza.
After lunch, we continued walking up the hill to Mitsuru Kobo, a dye studio specializing in kakishibu, a dye made form persimmon tannin. Apparently this color of the dyed piece will change over time; so when you buy a piece, you intend to appreciate and cherish it as it changes; this is the pact between the artist, the owner, and the piece of art. They were mostly. dying those two or there piece hangings you find over doors in Japan. On the left, you see on still drying in the studio. On the left, you see a finished piece, being washed in the river. Since they're just using fermented indigo, fermented persimmon, and rice paste on these pieces, there's no ecological issues with using the river to perform the final rinse. It was an amazing treat to see this piece the stream.
Finally, a walk up the hill on the other side of the valley to the Sanzen-in temple. All along the path to the temple, there were restaurants and stalls selling snacks, souvenirs of all kinds, and lots and lots of pickle. The temple is famous for having many small statues of Jizo, Buddhist protector of travelers and children.
I used some thrums from another project and made a band; I want to make two, to use to lash my leash sticks to the loom. It's 4 cards of 5/2 cotton, threaded two dark, two light, then woven with some black cotton something that was on one of my shuttles. I wove about 5 chevrons forward and 5 backward. I've also been looking for the best way to do the aglets, on these cords and also for shoelaces, one of my current obsessions! Ian Fieggen has a wonderful site with lots of info on aglets, different ways to thread shoelaces, and knots to tie them with... For this piece, I whipped it with the black weft thread and then coated it in clear nail polish; for the next lace, I'll whip and then try glue.
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.
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.
Then, the designer or customer works with a gold leaf artist to figure out what patterning on the gold leaf will work best with the design, then the gold leaf is applied to washi paper in a multi step process using a liquid extracted from a sumac plant; the artist has to get accustomed to the liquid, otherwise it will itch!!! The gold leaf artist can create different affects using scraps and "gold trash". The gold-leafed washi is cut into very very narrow strips but attached at sides of the paper to keep it in order until it's woven. We met Yasushi Noguchi, who gave us an overview of the process. He told us an interesting story about a commission he once had; the customer wanted his gold leaf sheets to be irregular, like the background in the famous iris work by Korin at the Nezu Museum. No one knew how this was done. He found another pattern his customer like but continued to research and ponder this for years until he finally received some untrimmed sheets of gold leaf and figured it out. I'm not going to detail it here; he described it. but it's pretty in-depth; but there are now scholarly papers authored by Noguchi-san detailing the technique. 
Meanwhile, back to the Nishijin Obi. The weaving company pulls the appropriate color of silk from their inventory or contacts with a silk dyer to get the shades they need created. We visited the dye workshop owned by the Okamoto brothers, who custom dye silk yarns for kimono and obi weavers. They use red, yellow, and blue (not sure if they use black as well) to match any color you can bring in, without test runs and apparently without challenges by incrementally adding tiny bits of dye until the right shade is reached.
After lunch, we continued walking up the hill to Mitsuru Kobo, a dye studio specializing in kakishibu, a dye made form persimmon tannin. Apparently this color of the dyed piece will change over time; so when you buy a piece, you intend to appreciate and cherish it as it changes; this is the pact between the artist, the owner, and the piece of art. They were mostly. dying those two or there piece hangings you find over doors in Japan. On the left, you see on still drying in the studio. On the left, you see a finished piece, being washed in the river. Since they're just using fermented indigo, fermented persimmon, and rice paste on these pieces, there's no ecological issues with using the river to perform the final rinse. It was an amazing treat to see this piece the stream.
