Continuing my visit to Japan for the 11th International Shibori Symposium: on the start of a very hot day, we toured the popular Nagoya Castle, with its remodeled living quarters, screens and beautiful ornamentation. In it, we were able to visit an outstanding exhibition of traditional Japanese Kimono, in Nagoya Castle and Arimatsu – Narumi Shibori.
We also visited Nagoya City Museum, where Arashi Master Hayakawa Kaei demonstrated how he creates arashi shibori using updated, automated tools. Again, he is another example of someone who attended art school in painting and returned to his family with its long dyeing tradition, to become a master dyer. And finally, we visited the Furukawa Museum, located in a beautiful Japanese home, displaying fragments of ancient fabrics. It was here that fifteen of us attended a lecture and showing of a 1630 book displaying textile patterns that included both dyeing and embroidery. Next to me sat Catherine Liu, who, it turns out, is from Iowa City, attending the Book Arts Program in University of Iowa’s Center for the Book. We both met for the first time at that lecture. Very small world.
And finally, in Tokyo, we visited the Amuse Museum, where we viewed stunning Boro textiles from an impoverished area in northern Japan. Also shown are boots made from salmon skin. The fins served as traction in icy conditions.
