Of the six gardenias, each about 50 cm tall, that I planted in my garden a few years ago for dye, I was able to harvest only three.
I guess it is not quite right for cold climate.
There were many sweet-smelling white flowers, but never thought I could harvest only this much.
I will keep an eye on the gardenias and hope that they grow big enough to adapt to the cold weather.
“Kinutauchi”
The finishing strokes for the woven kimono textile.
Place the flatly wound piece of kimono textile on a stone board and hit it evenly with a mallet to gloss silk and create mild texture.
The first step of my work.
To meet plants and receive.
I heard that branches of Yulan magnolia at my friend’s house were going to be lopped off in near future.
I obtained them before it happened.
I am well used to the pole-type pruning shears which I have been using for about 20 years and they fit to my hand
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1, Apr, 1996 was Monday.
After graduating from college in March of that year, I became an apprentice to master Ms. Fukumi Shimura.
“Good Morning”
I still remember the moment when I opened the sliding door of her studio in Kyoto and stepped forward, filled with tension and hope.
My daughter, my dog, my three cats have a different character respectively and they are the ones I must protect.
When you release threads into the indigo, you will see the iridescent bubbles rise on the surface of the liquid.
This proves that the indigo is well fermented and healthy.
The bubbles that look like islands floating on the ocean change the shape freely with my movement.
It’s like I am having a conversation with the indigo.
The Indigo is alive for sure.
The windows with old steel frames do not have screens, so they are rarely fully opened.
But I open this window in the atelier only this time of the year.
I don’t mind insects coming in.
If only I can capture the sweet aroma of fragrant olive.
One of my tasks is to keep schedule blank in order to secure a certain amount of time to concentrate on the loom.
A few years ago, when I was looking for Eco-friendly detergents and hand soaps, the products I unconsciously chose was “Made in New Zealand” and that was the beginning of my interest in the country.
We have moved forward from era of Heisei to Reiwa.
Among the series of touching ceremonies, I particularly gazed at the Emperor of Heisei wearing “Korozen-no-goho” during the Taiirei-Tojitsu-Kashikodokoro-Omae (one of the abdication ceremonies).
The colour of the traditional attire that only the Emperor can wear at an important ceremony, “Korozen”, is dyed with sumac (the cashew family) for yellow and sappan (native to the tropics) for red, mixing them together to dye refined and soft colour of reddish yellow.
Naturally, the colour varies to some degree from time to time, but I observed the “Korozen” this time was a noble colour with dignity, taking into account the background that it had been inherited for a long time.
It was the end and the beginning of the era where I could feel “Japanese tradition” and “inheriting”.
Last night’s forecast said that it might snow tomorrow, but when I woke up this morning, it had snowed more than I expected.
The other day, I went to Yamanashi Prefectural Museum of Literature to discuss the workshop which is planned in this summer. I will notify the detail when it’s ready.
After the meeting, I looked around the exhibition “The Rhythm of Handwriting” currently being held at the museum.
There you can see hand-drawn scrolls, and handwritten manuscripts and letters by Akiko YOSANO, Ryunosuke AKUTAGAWA, Dakotsu IIDA, Seiko NAKAMURA, Seifu TSUDA, Taijun TAKEDA, and etc.
In this era where electronic characters are the mainstream, I am moved by the energy (rhythm) of the writing while imagining through the handwriting the way people were like and lived.
