Student Voice (1st Year Students) 2

We will be introducing voices from students who have just entered the 1st year of the Professional Course in April 2020. Three students talked about why they entered the school, their thoughts about weaving, and how they feel after spending 4 months at the school. This is a three-part series.

“I am starting to feel the profoundness of weaving” Aiko Kanda

I am taking a year off from an art university in Tokyo to study here. Although at the university I major in Spatial Planning Design, I love fabric, and feel that my skills will broaden if I could make them myself. I am here to achieve techniques that would help me work independently as an artist.

I discovered Kawashima Textile School during my second summer at the university, starting from seeing a photo of a product from Kawashima Textiles (Kawashima Selkon Textile Co., Ltd.) in a Fashion class. Back then, I had a fixed idea of finding a job right after graduation, but I decided to make a plunge into a world I love, after being inspired by a film I saw at a craft exhibition around the same time, and finding out there are many ways a person can live.

When I visited the school, I saw the students’ work, how they were working towards the Graduate Exhibition, the many tapestries, and imagined myself making them as a student. I thought that maybe here, I could change in a significant way. Another option was changing my major at the same university, but since the curriculum at Kawashima Textile School is very dense, and there are many types of looms and a possibility to study various weaving techniques, I think I can find a weave that is a good match for me, while gaining a wide variety of experiences.

I am starting to feel the profoundness of weaving. Now knowing the different characteristics of each thread and fabric, and the freedom of weaving, I am interested in combining different materials. I am excited to see the potential of weaving, which I didn't know of before.

Student Voice (1st Year Students) 1

We will be introducing voices from students who have just entered the 1st year of the Professional Course in April 2020. Three students talked about why they entered the school, their thoughts about weaving, and how they feel after spending 4 months at the school. This is a three-part series.

"I have begun to feel a change of how I exist,
through my everyday life" -N

I took some workshops starting from the beginners' weaving course. I was fascinated by the diverse, independent way the other students I met there were living, and joined the Professional Course, where I would be able to study from the basics, to build my own foundation.

My interest in weaving began when I was thinking about life after raising my children, and remembered my grandparents who worked in jobs related to weaving. I especially like shawls, and hope to someday make something genuine, which would warm, and help lead the wearer to happiness. First of all, I would need to understand colors and materials, and achieve design skills. As I start to create, I am feeling the difficulty of realizing my ideas, but recently I feel like I am starting to understand the advice my teachers give me.

Simultaneously, I feel a change in my attitude of working, and how I exist. I have come to realize the importance of expressing my feelings, and have begun to act thinking about how I can be understood by the other person. Balancing school and family can be difficult, but the relationships with the other students and teachers, of different ages and backgrounds, has inspired and helped me. I like the feeling of pouring my heart into weaving, facing myself, in an environment full of nature. I am spending time heightening myself through life, through weaving.

About the School 8

An eight-part series introducing the school in the present as we review the 47 years since its foundation.

What are the teachers like?

First year students' Tapestry Weaving class

Each teacher provides guidance using their own unique skills and experiences. Among them is a skilled teacher who was involved in projects such as restoring fabrics from the Fujinoki Tomb (late 6th Century burial mound) at Kawashima Selkon Textiles Co., Ltd., and another who has been constant in teaching Homespun for nearly 40 years at the school.

There are other teachers who specialize in Tsuzure (tapestry weaving), Kimono, Obi, weaving structures, and Kasuri. What they all have in common is that they are fascinated with, and truly love weaving. They respect that tradition, value weaving beautiful fabric, and support students with care, with hope that each student's life will be enriched through weaving.

The school creates an open, positive atmosphere, balancing between stimulation and stability, by inviting artists, designers, and technical experts as guest lecturers.

About the School Series 1/2/3/4/5/6/7

*This is the final piece in our "About the School" series. Our next series starting on Aug. 18 is "Student Voice (First Year Students of the Professional Course)." We plan to introduce and share interviews with our teachers in the fall.

About the School 7

An eight-part series introducing the school in the present as we review the 47 years since its foundation.

Who are the students, and why do they come to the school?

Tomomi Mizuno, who studied fashion and was involved in creating theatrical costumes before coming to Kawashima Textile School.

In the Professional course, there are students who have just graduated high school or university, who want to make a career change, who are preparing to take over their family business, or who have decided to join after taking one of our workshops. People come from all over Japan, and there are people from other countries who learn Japanese to study at Kawashima Textile School.

Students with various backgrounds that connect through fabric gather at the school, such as Fashion, Architecture, Painting, and Textile Science and so on. This could be an indication of how profound the world of weaving is, and how it spreads in different directions. There is an increasing number of people who, when reconsidering their paths at a turning point in their lives, wish to learn handweaving as lifework, and as something that connects them to the basics of life.

About the School Series 1/2/3/4/5/6