Exploring Japanese crafts, textiles

• An eclectic, exciting modern collection

By Victoria Gail-White
Special to The Advertiser

•	Tsutsugaki, Country Textiles of Japan 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays Through May 2 Textile Gallery Honolulu Academy of Arts 532-8701

The futonji (futon cover), yogi (bridal bedding cover), noren (doorway hanging) and maiwai (ceremonial outer kimono) were selected from the art museum's extensive collection and span 300 years of the Japanese folk craft of tsutsugaki.

Tsutsugaki or tsutsugakizome (hand-drawn resist dyeing) takes its name from the cake-icing-like tool, the tsutsu. The tsutsu is a mulberry paper cone fitted with different-sized brass tips. The cone is filled with rice paste that is sometimes mixed with various colored dyes. The paste is squeezed onto the cloth to create a resist before the cloth is dipped in indigo dye. The resist is water-soluble and can be washed off in different stages of the dyeing process to achieve varying degrees of indigo intensity. It can take up to thirty dips to obtain that deeper blue-black color.

Indigo, the oldest natural permanent blue dye, has been used since Neolithic times. Unlike other natural dyes that are affixed with metallic salts in a two-step process, cut Indigofera tinctoria plant bundles are fermented in water for 10 to 15 hours, then beaten and strained. The resulting vat of blue-green fluid is temperamental and must be stirred regularly to keep it active. The dye is fixed when the dipped fabric oxidizes in the air. It is interesting to note the amazing brilliance of color in the mid-19th century pieces alongside the subdued softness of the older textiles.

The exhibit includes a rare 17th-century hanging made from a jacket. Five horses, treasured symbols of samurai warriors, are painted (although faded) in various poses across four indigo panels. The processes involved in the creation of this piece are incredibly time-consuming. The cloth was hand-woven from hand-spun cotton fibers, rice-paste resisted with painted pigments and then dip-dyed in an indigo vat.

The design motifs focus on auspicious symbols of joyous moments in the life of the villagers such as weddings, the birth of a child or a rich catch of fish. Phoenix and paulownia, bamboo, wisteria, caped tortoises, lions and cranes are positioned to wish long life, health and prosperity to the recipient. One early-19th-century futonji has 10 utensils used in the tea ceremony. An outer kimono (circa 1868-1912) with finely painted lines of three dancer-musicians includes stencil as well as resist work and was made to celebrate a rich catch of fish. A bench set beside this kimono encourages one to stop for a moment, reflect and appreciate the workmanship in these textiles. All that is missing is the sound of a babbling brook.

"Many of these pieces were made off-season, when the villagers were not farming," says Oka. "They had to be scientists, as well as artists, to work the dyes."

The majority of the textiles include lavender, red, khaki and gray dye pigments as well as the various shades of blue obtained from repeated dippings in an indigo vat. However, the futonji (1868-1912) with four auspicious caped tortoises is a masterpiece of control and imaginative pure indigo dyeing. Here the shell patterns of the tortoises create an optical tickle by reversing in varying degrees of blues and white.

Reiko Mochinaga Brandon, the recently retired textile collections manager, mounted the first display of the art museum's collection in 1985 and wrote the book, "Country Textiles of Japan: The Art of Tsutsugaki."

"It is quite a challenge to follow Reiko," says Oka.

If this show is any indication of what we can expect in the future, then this reviewer is anxiously awaiting the next textile installation — "Tied, Bound, Folded and Stitched" — from the institution's tie-dye collection.

During the last week in May, Temari, the Center for Asian and Pacific Fiber Arts, will feature a paste-resist and indigo workshop with visiting artist Akemi Cohn. To register, call 536-4566. In celebration of its 25th anniversary, Temari also will participate in a free-to-the-public, hands-on Tie/Dye Festival at the Academy Art Center (running concurrently with the textile gallery's installation) the first weekend in August.

An eclectic, exciting modern collection

•	Contemporary Japanese Crafts 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays Noon to 4 p.m. Sundays Through April 25 East-West Center Gallery 944-7584

The six themes are: ostentation (the use of ostentatious colors, gold and silver); quiet refinement (the natural expression of the materials); crispness (strong shapes and colors); fine detail (elaborate workmanship); deformation (the beauty of unevenness); and flowers and birds (ornamentation based on flower and bird motifs).

This collection of Japanese crafts is eclectic and exciting. The work ranges from a small, finely-detailed painted ceramic vase by Buzan Fukushima with auspicious birds painted in red on a white background to a large, hollow, nebulous blue polka-dot and white ceramic sculpture titled "Struggling Form" by Harumi Nakashima. The pieces were created between 1984 and 1996.

My favorites from each category: the porcelain vessel with teal and cobalt blue colored glazes by Yasokichi Tokuda (ostentation); Chieko Katsumata's ceramic vessel "Untitled" and Koyo Matsui's ceramic "Marbled Jar" (quiet refinement); Yoshiro Kimura's porcelain angular jar with cobalt blue glaze (crispness); Atsuko Kubota's porcelain large plate with floral design in pale blue glaze (fine detail); Masayuki Hashimoto's copper sculpture "Sunlight through Leaves" (deformation); and Motohiko Ito's large ceramic bowl with design of evergreen magnolia and fabric effects (flowers and birds). Of course, these favorites could change upon second and third viewings — there are so many fantastic works in this exhibit.

The Japanese Consulate in Honolulu is responsible for bringing this charming traveling exhibit here.