-You majored in Design at the Kyoto City University of Arts. Please tell us how you encountered handweaving.
I first encountered handweaving at Kawashima Textile School. After graduating from university, I started working at an interior company in Nagoya, and my job was to draw designs on paper. That company gave high priority on employee training, and in my first year, my boss told me that Kawashima Textile Manufacturers Ltd. (now Kawashima Textiles Selkon Ltd. Co.) opened a school, so he wanted me to study there. I took a dobby weaving class for a month, and for the first time experienced the process of how fabric is made.
-I wonder if weaving became interesting to you by studying at the school?
I thought, "I didn't know there was a world like this, maybe this suits me better than drawing designs." I became more and more eager to weave myself, and I was very sorry for the company, but I left after about two years. After that I moved to Kyoto, found a place to live, and started looking for a workshop. First I consulted my professor at the university, hoping there could be a place where they could teach me. I was introduced through a number of people, and ended up working as an apprentice for textile artist Tsugio Odani in his workshop.
-When you have a strong desire to do something, there is an inevitable tendency of connecting with people.
Fateful encounters. It was a life saver. I learned while helping Mr. Odani's production, and was shocked to see the reality of manufacturing, in which the drawing on paper is not the end. He actually wanted someone who could weave. However, at that time I was not ready to. Still, he didn't tell me to quit, let me do what I could, and I was able to experience the process starting from dyeing and preparing the yarn for weaving.
 |
| In the Kawashima Textile School Atelier, 1974 |
-What was the workshop like?
Mr. Odani mainly created tsumugi (pongee) or kasuri (ikat) kimono, and craft products such as zabuton (square cushions) in different materials according to the season, such as cotton, silk, hemp, kudzu (arrowroot), wool, and the studio had plenty of tools such as yarn twisting machines. It was good to have the opportunity to get to know various textiles, come into contact with different fibers, learn the basics of the origins of fabric and how they are constructed.
-Were there many workshops at the time?
There was a Mingei boom in the 70s, and I think it was thriving in different areas of Japan. Mr. Odani was an apprentice of Etsutaka Yanagi, textile artist and nephew of SÅetsu Yanagi, and if anything, he was closer to Mingei.
-Were you not afraid of losing economic stability, by quitting your job?
No, I wasn't. I think it's because I didn't think too much about it. I wonder if there was an atmosphere of the times such as the student movement. I might have been worried if I had worked for a company for a longer time, but I was young. At that time, there were many workshops, and I was convinced that the products made would be distributed smoothly. I thought that if a person who was much older than me could make a living in that way, I would be able to as well. Looking back on it now, that was thoughtless (laughs).
-When did you first encounter homespun?
At first it was at the workshop. Mr. Odani would weave handspun scarves in the winter, so I would prepare the wool by washing, dyeing, loosening it and such. After that the spinning process was done by an American student, and by watching I learned the whole process there, of how wool would turn into fabric.
My real encounter was at an exhibition. Mr. Hironao Arikawa has a workshop in Morioka (Iwate prefecture), and is a fellow apprentice of Mr. Odani. Mr. Arikawa was going to have an exhibition in Kyoto, so Mr. Odani went to help. I also went to see it, and saw a homespun fabric for clothes for the first time, and I experienced a big shock that something like that could be done with handweaving.
-The second shock. There you encountered wool.
Yes. I left my apprenticeship at the studio at two years, but I wasn't clear about what kind of weaving I would do in the future. I tried weaving with cotton and silk but somehow it didn't feel right, and taking that encounter at the exhibition as an opportunity, I decided on wool. I studied design, so I am attracted to practicality. If it is a piece of clothing it can be used in daily life, and I liked the feel of wool. For me, the fact that I got the perspective of using fabric that I wove myself in daily life was significant.
-Did you study homespun on your own?
I studied it on my own. I wouldn't have a salary if I worked as an apprentice at another workshop, so financially, I had to continue by myself. I didn't have much because I left work, so I started, thinking I would do it myself. I encountered many people and fabric, and learned through books and workshops, so it didn't feel impossible. I set myself up through the help of many people, by trying methods with wool I saw and heard about at Mr. Odani's workshop on my own, and joining Mr. Arikawa's classes.
-It's amazing that you started on your own from the very beginning.
In learning, some things can be done without being taught from others. Homespun has been done at home for a long time, so I didn't think it would be that difficult. I also didn't understand the difficulty.
-Both yarn and weaving don't have a right or wrong. You have pursued that.
You continue with your own judgment because you can't compare. It is a lot of work just to spin and weave, so at first I had a sense of fulfilment just by making something.
Continued to part 2 (Oct. 12, 2020)
