| NOTA |
(*)(Japan Publishing Industry Foundation for Culture) (★)(「In the years since I entered the dyer´s way, I have received color without limit from the natural world --a flood too great for this meager vessel to contain. Like a joyful child with a new set of paints, I have spent my days dyeing and weaving with the gifts of the grasses and trees.」A startlingly original creator in the medium of textiles, Living National Treasure Shimura Fukumi is also well known in Japan for her essays on color, nature, and the work of weaving and dyeing. ´The Music of Color´ collects some of Shimura´s most insightful writing together with Takao Inoue´s stunning photographs of her art and the natural world that inspires it. From winter snows to spring blossoms, from the foothills of Japan´s ´Southern Alps´ to the back streets of Gion, Kyoto, Shimura initiates the reader into areas of Japanese culture where the boundary between craft and art is blurred. Her insight into the sources and uses of natural color, along with her decades of experience in the world of Japanese textiles, from silkworm and loom to finished kimono, are both on full display in this rich collection. Travels from Basho´s ´Deep North´ to the western island of Kyushu are recorded, as are valuable accounts of Shimura´s encounters with other figures in Japanese aesthetics such as lacquerware master Kuroda Tatsuaki and poet-critic Ooka Makoto. Offering new perspectives on contemporary textiles, Japanese folk craft traditions, and how Japanese artists engage with the four seasons, the gemlike essays and translucent photographs of ´The Music of Color´ will linger with the reader long after the book is read. ◆Shimura Fukumi, born in Oomihachiman, Shiga, in 1924, Shimura Fukumi received her first lessons in weaving from her mother at the age of 17. She began working with plant-based dyes in 1955. Recognized as a Living National Treasure by the Japanese government, she has also received the Osaragi Jiro Prize and other literary awards for her writing on art.) |
BASE de DATOS, Biblioteca del Centro Cultural de la Embajada de Japon
Print Page