Amuse Museum: BORO Exhibition

My interest in Japanese textiles started from boro cloth I saw at my neighbour's home in Bangkok thirty years ago. It was an amazing piece of boro cloth that held the history of the maker and the users for generations. My Japanese neighbour told me that it belonged to her family for as long as she could remember. Having traveled to Japan in the last few years I have now seen more boro cloths in various shops, museums and private collections of friends. Of course I haven't owned one myself. I have one started and it is still a work in progress. You can read about it here. On my recent visit to Japan I was very fortunate to visit a boro exhibition of Chuzaburo Tanaka's collection at the Amuse Museum,  Asakusa, Tokyo. It's an exhibition yuo can touch, photograph, and try on the boro clothes. We thoroughly loved it. And here are the photos I took to share with you. Enjoy...

Tabi boots (toe boots)

boro futon cover

boro quilt with cotton padding

Sakiori rug (rag rug)

boro curtain still in good condition

boro kimono jacket

Cynthia was trying on boro jacket

Cynthia was showing the back

Museum shop which has fantastic blue collections

Here is a boro vest I started since my return. I'm using vintage kimono fabric I brought back and some of the indigo fabric I dyed during the tour. I used an old vest I found at an op-shop that was perfect for the job. I have started putting some stitching on it now. Click to enlarge and see a close-up of the stitching. I used Instagram app on my iPad/iPhone to take the photos to give me the aged look!

Three books of boro collections from my very own Japanese library. I'm so lucky to have access to many Japanese books about culture, textiles, history, art and crafts. I can also request books that I'm interested in. I have put an order for books on kumihimo. Apart from Japanese collections, I also have a Korean collection at my library too. I have lately been interested in bojagi. I enjoy working at my library. I usually bring piles of books home in the weekends. Even though I can't always read everyone of them, I'm happy just to have them with me. Lis also posted about her visit to Amuse Museum so do visit her blog. 

I think I only have enough photos for one more post on Japan. It's shopping in Japan. Sadly I didn't do very well on that one. Not a lot of opportunity and time, but I do have a few things to show you. 

Till next time

Nat

The Art of Green Tea

At the end of our walk from the farm to Fujino train station (I posted about it here) we met Tae, our beautiful Japanese tea ceremony master and the welcoming host for the tour. Tae lives in Tokyo, she travelled one and half hours to Fujino to perform the tea ceremony for us. I met Tae on my last visit to Japan. She and her husband are both interested in the Thai language. They both speak and write Thai very well.  With our mutual interest we seemed to click.

Tae stepped out of the train wearing one of her beautiful kimonos. What caught my eye was the hand woven obi. While we were waiting for our lift. I got a chance to have photo taken with Tae. 

Here is the close up photo of Tae's obi. The delightful motive was hand woven. She told us that she has it for a long long time. The colour and design could be anything in today's fashion! Love it, love it...

I got a chance to take a photo of the front view of Tae's obi. The motive is the same pattern as the back, but  smaller. It looks so elegant and delicate. 

I feel like I have seen this scene before. It was from a famous movie in a long gone era? I'm not sure now, but I certainly have seen it in another time, another place!  

The tea ceremony was set up on the third floor of the farm. We were all sitting around Tae observing, learning and photographing (we were allowed to photograph). The tea used in the ceremony was powdered green tea. 

We were offered to try making the tea as well. Tae was showing Cynthia the proper way to spoon the tea into a cup. Yes there are hundreds of steps in making tea. I was told by my Japanese friends that you need a life time to learn the Japanese tea ceremony.

Here is Lis making tea. Lis bloged about her experience of the tea ceremony too. You can read about that here.

At the end of the ceremony the group presented Tae with gifts we took from our countries. Tae enjoyed opening all the gifts. Preparing the gifts to take on the tour was a fun activity for everyone. All the gifts were well thought of. Some were hand made. 

I learned that Tae also loves taking photographs. Tae and Cynthia in front of the farm with the kura in the background. It was another memorable day, and our last day on the tour. Everyone left early the next morning. All good things came to an end...!

You might already know that I have two grown up children, Kitiya and Mark. Kitiya lives in Sydney and she is a little miss famous in her own right. This week she was interviewed by the Design Files Daily "5 Questions with Kitiya Palaskas". I'm a very proud mum! You already read about Mark and his Bike Babies adventure. They have now moved further up the East coast of Malaysia.

Till next time

Nat

Eco-Dyed In Fujino

Eco dyeing becomes my passion because of my love of nature. When I was on the tour in Fujino I knew I had to try eco dyeing with local plants. I already knew that some plant materials there would dye well. Cedar bark was plentiful from the local timber yard. I also wanted to try cherry blossoms and branches. I managed to save some rusty metal from the house renovation. I took a long piece of silk I got from Ziguzagu to share with the tour members. Some members already knew how to eco-dye, but it was the first time for some of them. I wore my eco-dyed scarf and skirt to get them inspired.   

Here I was on our walk. I gathered some wood to wrap the bundles with. That day we gathered leaves, bark, lichen that had fallen on the ground, and lots of flowers for our dye session later on that day. Photo by Blandina. 

Remember this piece I dyed before the tour? I did it as a gift for Mitsuhide another resident at the farm. Mitsuhide loves roses and is an expert on them. He grows beautiful and healthy roses at the farm. He had been very helpful in getting the place ready for the tour. This was a gift to thank him for his help. 

One of the tour members dyed this piece with Gardenia pods leftover from another dyeing session. The blue spots came from pansies. There was a pot of pansies on the wall next to where we prepared the bundles. Needless to say there weren't many pansies left when we finished dyeing!

I can see this piece got everything we gathered thrown in including steel wool. I must say it looks very cool. I hope whoever owns it is happy with the outcome.

On our walk around the village. You can see Janine and Cynthia holding two large bags full of dye stuff. Not everyone came out for a walk with us. It was a lovely, but cool afternoon. 

Another gorgeous rusty piece. It goes well with the rusty roof of the next door neighbour.  

We got our pieces mixed up after hanging them out to dry. I think these were mine! I over-dyed the piece on the right with indigo. A bit too bright, but it can be used in my sakiori weaving workshop I'm having later on in May. Nothing will go to waste once I start weaving! 

The pink patches came from camellia flowers and the brown bits were from cedar bark. It's good enough to keep I think.  

I have started dyeing again since I got home. The camellia flowers where everywhere in my neighbourhood so I had to make a batch with them. I remembered my first eco-dye I did using camellia flowers. It's like my anniversary of dyeing with them again.

I boiled them for about 40 minutes to get the colour out of the flowers. Then I took the pulp out and steamed the bundles in the dye liquid.

Here are the four bundles I dyed with camellia flowers. I used different leaves in each bundle. Some with eucalyptus leaves and some with grape leaves. I'm being good and will leave them until next weekend before I open them. The weather is cool enough to leave them longer without worry that they will turn mouldy. 

And these are some of the results from the above dyed batch. They turned out so well this time. I opened them this morning. I have lot of plans for these pieces in the near future.  

Eco-dyeing is not for everyone. You either like it or hate it! I love it because I love dyeing, I love plants, I love recycling, and I love the challenge required to get the results. I don't think eco-dyeing is for Japan. From my observation in Japan, Japanese artists like to make everything perfect. Once they get that perfection they go back and create imperfection to get it out of shape to make it unique. Eco-dyeing is unpredictable. You get what nature gives you then you  can create something out of your piece that is totally unique to you. You can never make two the same in eco-dyeing, but why would you want to! I hate mass production so eco-dyeing is for me...

PS: Where are the Bike Babies today? 

Till next time

Nat 

How Many Scarves?

How many scarves do I need? I wondered that too. I love scarves and wear one everyday. I wear scarves when I go to work, at home, and when I go out! A scarf has become an accessory for every outfit. While in Japan I dyed seven scarves. I made one for everyday of the week, almost. A scarf has become an item of clothing for most women and men today. I feel undressed without wearing one. Enjoy my scarves with me...!

There are eight scarves in the above photo. The red shibori scarf I made using two lengths of a metre long kimono fabric I found at Asakusa market when we visited the Amuse (boro) museum. The green and red one on the left is the most beautiful chiffon silk. I dyed it using yellow dye from Gardiner pods and red from Maddar root over dyed with indigo. 

This red shibori was from vintage fabric joined in the middle to make it long enough to become a full length scarf. Most of my scarves are blue (surprise, surprise!) so when I found the red shibori pieces I had to have them!

One of the highlights during the tour for me was a visit to Noguchi-San indigo master's studio. I pre-stitched this piece of shibori hoping to dye it in the fermentation vat and I did. I dipped it so many times in order to get that dark indigo blue. Don't you just love how it looks? 

Snow dyed effects. We all dyed this scarf almost at the end of the tour. It was easy, but effective. I love the feel of this silk. Not sure what kind of silk it was. All silk keeps you very warm even though it is thin material. 

Moon scarf. I dyed a lot of moon pieces on the tour. I also wanted a blue scarf so when I was planning to dye this cotton scarf I decided to add a few moons at one end.

A loose cotton scarf. This is my most favourite of the seven scarves I did. I made a shibori stitch using simple line of stitching in a zig zag pattern. I dipped half of it seven times and three times on the other half. The results is light and dark diamonds alternatively. I have been wearing this scarf ever since I dyed it.  

This is the last scarf I did on the tour. It took the whole evening to stitch it. I cheated by folding it in half and stitching it. I tied both ends in the same pattern. It's my second favourite scarf from the tour.

I hope you enjoyed my collection of indigo dyed scarves. It's coming to winter here in Australia so these scarves are handy to have. Well, how many scarves do you need? 

PS: DS's Bike Babies blog. They have taken their babies to Malaysia a few days ago. If you want to know where they are please visit their blog...

Till next time

Nat

Let's go for a walk: In Fujino

It's 6.5 kilometres from the farm to Fujino train station. It's harder to walk from the station uphill to the farm . The day before the tour end was an easy day for us. Cynthia, Janine and I decided to take a walk down to the station and take photos. We had seen lovely houses and gardens along the way by car and decided a walk is a better way to get photographs.

Making a trip both ways would have exhausted us, but Bryan had to pick up his friend Tae, our lovely Japanese tea ceremony master that afternoon, so we took the opportunity to get a ride home with them. In this post I will share with you the photos of the walk in Fujino. Enjoy!

Map of the area displayed at Fujino train station where the red 
bubble is. The farm is near the last turn off on the top left.

The green tea field belongs to Bryan. You can see it from the farm. 

Cherry tree at the corner of the farm welcomes you on top of the driveway.

ひとりしずか/ Japanese name: By Myself Quiet. (name obtained from Bryan's blog)

Village signs as you enter. I guess they say, 'Bryan's farm left' and 'Fujino train station 

right'.

Passing all these wonderful blossoms and trees along the way

Round the corner down the hill. 5 kilometres more before the train station

Passing cedar pine forest. Slender and tall. Cedar bark is great for eco-dyeing as well!

Crafted motif on headstone from the village cemetery

We met a local on his way to fish

 A cute coffee shop just outside Fujino train station. I love the cat Nolan 

Cross the creek down the hill from the farm

Green tea plantations in the valley

Cynthia and I stood and let cherry blossoms shower over us.

Walked over the horse bridge

Attractive looking leaves

Some yellow flowers instead of pink

Rusty roof calling for a photograph. 

Boy's Day May 5th. 

Yeah we reached the tunnel! Janine posing at the mouth of the tunnel

Thanks for coming along for a walk with me. I hope you enjoyed the scenery along the way.  Fujino is a hidden treasure yet to be discovered. When we took the members for a drive one afternoon one of them mentioned what I had told them before the tour started, "If you did not know anyone in Fujino you would never go there", and they agreed. If you happen to be in Tokyo and have a day to spare do make the trip to Fujino. It's only just over an hour's ride by train on Chuo line from Shinjuku station or Tokyo terminal. 

Till next time

Nat