We are bringing you an interview with one of our full-time teachers. Fumika Niho teaches the 10-day and 5-day Beginners’ workshops (Japanese), and also teaches weave structures in the Professional Course, specializing in the countermarch loom. In addition to her friendly personality, her ability to make a bright, lively atmosphere, and her way of teaching, combining strictness and leniency, is popular with students who come to study weaving for the first time. Niho-sensei, who studied “Furniture, Interior & Architecture” at University, worked as an Interior Coordinator, then entered the world of weaving, spoke about her path of changing careers based on the viewpoint of “space.”
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Teaching the first year students in the Professional Course how to wind yarn onto kiwaku (wooden bobbins). “Starting off on the right foot is essential. I teach how important it is to handle yarn carefully, while checking each step of the process.”
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The interview started with Niho-sensei asking, “What do you think ‘interior’ is?” “Isn’t it hard to grasp?”
She loved to visit museums and galleries, and entered the Design Department at Tokyo Zokei University, majoring in Shitsunai Kenchiku [*the direct translation would be “Indoor Architecture,” but is called “Furniture, Interior & Architecture” in English], thinking that “creating spaces sounded fun.” However, she runs into the difficulty of creating spaces. “There are so many ways to approach space, and it’s difficult to capture. At critiques, there were students who just talked without having an actual item, or students who would only show their work with graphics using a presentation board. Even if you could make a model, it’s not the actual thing, so in the end, it’s a proposal.”
Still feeling uncertain, unable to have the feeling of making something, after graduating she started working at a home building company. “I wanted a job where I knew ‘what’ I was making.” She became involved with work creating residential spaces, and as an Interior Coordinator, listened to the clients’ requests, and worked in collaboration with the architect, site foreman, and craftspeople. “The most rewarding part about being a Coordinator was seeing the clients move into their new homes comfortably, through communicating with them. I enjoyed that role, but even then, I would struggle with the thought of not being able to create with my hands. I like fabric. After hearing about KTS from a curtain sales representative from Kawashima Selkon Textiles Co., Ltd. that we worked with, I took a school tour. I decided to study there."
Because of how busy she was, it took a year to leave her job, and what led to her actually quitting was her boss leaving the company. “My boss left his job to chase his dream. I said, ‘I’m quitting to chase my dream, too’ (laughs). At the end, it comes down to whether you have the courage to quit or not.” After that, she saved money for tuition, then entered KTS.
Even if it was her first time to study weaving, her perspective of architecture was useful. “After entering, I was able to finish a project in Design Exercise class, with the finished form in mind. I had something like a ‘cash stash’ of design that I cultivated through my time at university and work, and when I used that, design made sense to me. I had always thought I didn’t understand what design was, but I noticed that (even though I didn’t realize it myself), I had been able to think from the point of view of design.” She came to understand the “design” part of “textiles” over a year at KTS, and in her second year, majored in kimono, and made kimonos using the Kasuri technique. “Through my work in architecture, I have learned how to think when creating with restrictions, such as the clients’ wishes, or in construction work. There are many restrictions in weaving, but there is a wide range of things that can be made. Kasuri especially requires a detailed plan in the beginning. It was interesting since the creating process is similar to architecture.”
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“I often come up with ideas when I am walking. I wanted to express a joyful kind of movement, and thinking of how their fins move in a floaty way, decided to use goldfish as a motif.” |
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“The smallest unit of this design is a warp kasuri that is 3cm long and 3mm wide. I made a kimono that would be fun to wear, intentionally using a drum warping machine, which has many restrictions, and tried to create an overall sense of rhythm by how the small kasuri patterns were arranged or placed.” |
After two years, she ran out of savings. When she was looking for a job where she could hand weave, thinking, “I want to buy a loom, but I need money. I have to work first,” she heard of a job listing for “Jōhana Oriyakata (Nanto City, Toyama Prefecture),” from a friend at KTS who had previously worked there, and applied for the job. She would plan unique handwoven items, and make coasters, shawls, bags, and neckties that would be sold in the shop there. She also taught one-day trial classes. “During the two years I worked there, I met many people who wanted to weave, and understood that there was a demand for weaving.” Upon returning to the Kansai area after getting a loom, the school offered her a job, wanting “young people to bring in fresh air,” due to the generational change in full-time teachers.
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“At the shop, I listened directly to the voices of customers and made products that met their needs. Among them, I made new products that used weave structures such as huck weave or double weave, when most of them had been made in plain weave. It was an environment where I was able to do weaving related work freely.” |
At KTS, she teaches workshops for beginners. The number of participants has gradually increased, and has now become a course that is often full. “Many people who come to KTS are serious about learning how to weave, not just wanting to experience it, and they each have different goals. To understand each person’s needs is the same as working as an Interior Coordinator. I have always had a job that involves talking with people, so that is useful now.”
She also teaches weave structures to the first year students in the Professional Course. The goal is to “acquire a weave structure brain.” Once you understand weave structures, “you can make unique items by arranging them based on what you want to make, not just by weaving standard patterns.” It might be said that is an approach she can take precisely because she has acquired the strength to apply architecture to weaving, and understands the joy of it.
Niho sensei, who majored in “Furniture, Interior & Architecture” after being drawn to exciting spaces, then worked in interior design, is now going forward in the world of hand weaving. “I’ve made many detours.” she says in a crisp tone, but it seems that she is beginning to feel a certain response. That is that by gaining the skills to make things, space, which was vast and hard to grasp, has come back into her hands, and now she is able to materialize it. Living is also space. She will also be teaching the new “Weekly Class” starting in 2021.
“I have visions of the fabric I want to make, so I want to create my own artwork. After all, it’s nice to be able to move your hands and make things!”
"At first I looked at weaving with envy. It seemed hard since I am not dexterous, so it felt like something distant, like magic (laughs). Through actually studying it, I was able to get closer to weaving when I understood that I could use my approach of putting things together. Now, as I have found a craft that excites me from the bottom of my heart, and can logically materialize what was an image in my mind, weaving is not magic, but a reality. Right now, I am in the middle of creating my own path in the world of weaving."
