In love with Inagaki Toshijiro 稲垣稔次郎

I came face to face with another of my katazome idols yesterday. There is an exhibition on at the Kyoto National Museum of Modern Art (京都国立近代美術館）at the moment, showing works by Toshijiro and his older brother Chusei, who was a painter. I admit I walked pretty quickly through th Chusei half of the exhibition to get to the Toshijiro half.

WOW~ if his kimono and kataezome (dyed pictures on washi paper) look cool in books, they are even more beautiful in real life. He has a really clever way of using two patterns side by side, especially in his kimono. 　

detail of the kimono below

I also admire the way he depicts people and objects in a simplified form but still gives you enough visual information to know exactly what it is. For example in this next piece showing Kiyomizu temple in Kyoto, the three women in the foreground in kimono.

 This last piece was surprisingly unlike his others. It shows a bustling Kyoto street at nightime. The colours are so spectacular you can just imagine what the festive feel of the street was like, all that neon and those well dressed people.

 

After seeing the exhbition you'd see why he was made a "National Treasure"

Birds

In my katazome work I have been interested in using Australian birds and flora.

So I was really surprised when I found a few paintings by Itō Jakuchū incorporating what look like cockatoos and eclectus parrots! (http://www.birdsaustralia.com.au/education-resources/eclectus-parrot.html)

These are part of a painting tradition in Japan called kachoga 花鳥画, meaning flower and bird paintings.

I’ve also seen some kimono from Japan which feature exotic looking parrots like Cockatoos.

Even more exciting to come across was this katazome piece by famous Japanese dyer Inagaki Toshijirō. (National Treasure, b. 1902 Kyoto ~ 1963)

Seems that exotic birds have long been present in Japanese art and textiles. Its nice to think I am continuing in this tradition.