Boro: And A Story of White and Blue

My new passion regarding Japanese (Folk) Art is a technique to recycle and to reuse tattered cloth. The aspect that, in my eyes, makes these pieces for everyday-use so singular is the combination of extremely simple material and the wide range of possibilities experienced in the use of used cloth and simple repeating stitches.

Boro is a Japanese word meaning “tattered rags” and it’s the term frequently used to describe lovingly patched and repaired cotton bedding and clothing.
The frugal Japanese woman repaired the family’s sleeping futon covers and noragi (farm clothing) again and again by “boro” patching fabric scraps over thin areas and holes in the fabric. Adding sashiko sewing to the repair gave greater strength to the material. Today international collectors regard boro textiles as uniquely Japanese and striking examples of a bygone and lost folk craft.

At a time when Japan was struggling to recover from the devastation of the second World War, the Japanese regarded boro textiles with great shame. These utilitarian textiles served as an open reminder of Japan's impoverished past. Now these same textiles are cherished and collected for the stories they tell and the windows they open into Japanese folk culture and history.

Kimonoboy is an online-shop based in Japan which offers an incredible variety of boro and other cloth and garments. All the pics are from there.

Another remarkable site is Srithreads. You can also buy here and you can find a lot of fascination information on Japanes and Indian Textile Art.

Surprise - from Japan!

Received this cute package a few days ago...

... nicely decorated with "Hello Kitty" stamps, but much more cute the content...


Two pieces of Japanes fabric with Russian dolls, called Matroschka. They will serve me as applications for a new sewing project. Stay tuned!
If you like the fabric and want to see more ha a look at kiseki's, a German fabric store (online and in Berlin) specialized in Japanese prints. So inspiring! Juliane has also a blog where she writes about her travels to Japan, craft fairs and other interesting stuff. A must-read!



Buy fabric here and here.

Pear blossoms

"The blossom of the pear tree is quite awful. It should be spurned and on no account ever be attatched to a letter. From leaf to bloom, its lack of color reminds one of a plain woman, utterly charmless. Yes, this is what we usually think of the pear blossom. Yet, knowing that the Chinese admire it, I decided to take a close look at one, and found that the edges of the petals were tinged ever so faintly. And I recalled the Chinese poem about the great beauty Yang Guifei, who, from exile, greeted the emperor's messenger in tears. The poet likened her face to a branch of pear blossoms sprinkled with rain. Then I realized that indeed the pear blossom is a splendid flower after all."

Sei Shonagon, The Pillow Book



Quoted from: L. Dalby: East Wind melts the Ice, London 2007, 31.

Liza Dalby: Hidden Buddhas

Browsing around looking for material to use in my post on Liza Dalby's books I noticed that she had published a new one in 2009. This time a novel. Of course I had to read it immediately and finished it in a few nights - a rare phenomenon right now; as a working mom I have only a few hours before dawn to spend on reading...

"Hidden Buddhas" is a modern detective story that crosses the borders of time, culture and continents. At the same time it is a very touching romance embedded in a tale on Buddhism in Japan. We encounter buddhist monks with a faible for culinary delights, an American student on pilgrimage in and a maverick professor breeding honeybees. The book with many turns is absorbing from the beginning to the end, full of bizarre events in disparate environments such as Japan, France and the US, which give us a different insight in what is familiar and what is exotic. A young American student experiences the attraction of an esoteric Japanese tradition and a buddhist funeral ritual is performed in a catholic family - nothing is impossible in a world where love and enthusiasm transcend every border.

From a literary point of view the novel has maybe a few weak points; the author seems more comfortable with the charakters that cross the borders of traditions and culture than with the "pure" Japanese ones. The story of Mayumi remains somehow a draft, even though the whole novel culminates in her - a little bit too hasty for me. But maybe this will be the next book!

Nevertheless "Hidden Buddhas" was probably the novel I enjoyed most this year. As I already mentioned I adore all the other books of Liza Dalby and I admire her capability to integrate her deep knowledge of Japanese culture in her fictional and essayistic prose. The spiritual dimension of Japanese Buddhism was completely new to me, but I was also happy to recognize elements from her former books in digressions on Kimono fabrics or the ancient Chinese almanachs.

A wonderful book for rainy days and sleepless nights!

Spring Corner and Japanese Inspiration

It is still extremely cold here these days, icy wind stirs up snow, but my heart longs for blossoms and fresh green... Sigh... To beat my lingering sadness I decided to bring spring into our bedroom.

It all started with the inspiring books - I featured one of them in a previous post - of the anthropologist and writer Liza Dalby. She is the first foreigner to study the ancient Japanese art of being a geisha. Liza Dalby's experiences inspired several books on Japanese culture. "The Tale of Murasaki" was the book I read first; a novel on the life of the world's first novelist, a court lady in the 10th century. I had found it by chance on a rummage table of a local bookstore - or should I say the book found me? In any case I couldn't resist the charme of the refined Japanes court culture since then and have read avidly everything I could find.
I admire most the connection between poetry and observation of nature and the beauty that lays in the changing of seasons.
This inspired me to create a spring corner with a runner of vintage kimono silk on a bamboo tea table, matching tulips and some of Liza Dalby's books...

... in the original and some in german translation...

Next came a kimono scroll mural with lovely handpainted blossoms again on vintage kimono silk.



Now I feel much better :-)
In her recent book, "East Wind Melts the Ice" she creates a diary of the seasons divided into the 72 five-day segments of an ancient Chinese almanac. Today belongs to the second section: "dormant creatures start to twitch" (february 10 through14). I try to imagine little animals deep in the earth of my backyard starting to move unter the white snow. And, was it a dream or did I really hear small birds singing when I woke up at dawn?

iTabi - Handmade iPhone Cases

I'm always thrilled whenever I find new stylish handmade products around somewhere; these iPhone cases are particularly cool because they blend traditional japanese Kimono fabric, which I'm expecially fond of, with a new purpose. And they are handmade, in Kyoto, Japan.

The pattern is very simple, and if you would not try to sew one yourself - which I will definately try - you can buy one here for only USD 19.98!


Found via LotusHaus.

From the Japanese Garden

Take a tour in the Japanese Garden in the city of Erfurt ...

... admire the breathtaking colours of autumn...

...and fly far away to another continent...

...be someone else for a few minutes.

Found! Asian Inspired Cotton Fabrics

In an earlier post I hoped to find printed cotton fabric with Japanese /Asian inspired motives ... and indeed the big fabric shop Hart's Fabric in California has a large section of such, and at very reasonable prices!

The designs range from very colourful to more classical ones that could derive from historical Kimonos:

For different purposes; the following one in gold on black could look good also for home decor or gift wrapping ... let your creativity flow!

Found via Lotushaus.

Summer Weekend

We had a great sunny weekend, and finally it was warm enough to dress my daughter Lina in the oh so cute Kimono pajama my brother brought us from Japan (Thank you, Sandro!). I love the traditional pattern printing decorated with beautiful court ladies in the style of the Heian-Period (794-1192) with their beautiful long loose hair. If only I knew where to buy similar cotton fabric to sew something for myself!

A book like a jewel - Ariake

Don't you cut the brush
Growing on the riverbank
High above Saho River;
Leave it as it is,
So when spring comes araound
We'll have a place to hide.

Lady Ôtomo of Sakanue

While I asked myself

Whether you might be coming
Or I might go there,
The hesitant moon appeared,
And I slept, the door unlocked.

Anonymous

More than the color
It is the fragrance I find
A source of delight.
Whose sleeve might have brushed against
The plum tree beside my house?

Anonymous

Pictures and poems are taken from the book Ariake - Poems of Love and Longing by the Women Courties of ancient Japan, San Francisco 2000. Illustrations by Rae Grant, foreword by Liza Dalby.

Kimono Eyeglasses Chords

Here are the first examples of Kimono Silk crafting from my atelier ;-)
Made from original vintage Kimono silk in light blue, two of chirimen silk with some small printings in shibori (tie-dye) style, the third one has a structured surface with small waves and momji (maple leave) patterns.
I have affixed small rubbel loops for the eyeglasses; the chords match perfectly with a light coloured summer outfit . You can wear your (sun) glasses around your neck when you don't need them or you protect your glasses from very agile baby-hands... oh, I know that problem ;-)
All my stuff you can find in my Dawanda store soon... keep in touch!

Oh so adorable! Handmade Kimono Bags

Have a look at these wonderful handmade bags from vintage kimono fabrics found at Japan Hand! I'm totally in love!




This Baden-Baden based shop offers also other beautiful handmade accessoirs from Japan with reminescences of ancient patterns and dyeing techniques. So lovely!
It is a year or so that I was cought by the Kimono fabric passion ;-) and since then I collect these great works of art - as far as my purse allows it ;-). But if you do not go only for very precious antiquities, you can find a lot of attractive pieces on ebay.
Kimono fabrics are wonderful by themselves, but you can use them also for a lot of different projects, for home decor, wallhangings, designer clothing, jewellery... Pics of my own humble projects will follow ;-)

Pomegranate Magic

What about some fresh pomegranate seeds?
Today I will lift the secret of the name(s) I chose for this blog, for my web presentation as an oriental dancer and my label "Zakuro" for handmade jewellery, clothes and acessoires from vintage oriental fabrics ;-)

Everything has something to do with the pomegranate. In the mediterranean area this fruit has always been a symbol of fertility and the eternal circle of life, death and resurrection. You can see it in representations of the greek earth goddess Demeter and her daughter and it play a significant role in all kind of myths. The best known one is probably the story of Eve and the serpent, that ended the stay of mankind in paradise. We imagine Eve tasting an apple, but most probably she ate from a pomegranate, a fruit that was much more common in the Near East at that time...
But also in Central Asia and Iran the pomegranate is very appreciated for its sweet-sour taste and the wonderful red flowers. They are the name-givers for a famous dancing girl in the history of Indian Mughals: Anarkali. Her story has inspired poets and filmmakers, of whom the most famous one is probably K. Asif with his epic movie "Mughal-E-Azam". Splendid Madhubala is starring as Anarkali and from the day I saw her dancing in the film I decided to practice Kathak dancing ;-)

There is only on chapter missing in the story of the pomegranates; the name "zakuro" means pomegranate in Japanese, and for this I chose occasionally this name for my label when I started to work with silk fabrics from original Japanese vintage kimonos, carefully unpicked and collected for new projects... pics will follow!