A Man On A Mission

Molly’s “Brief History…” piece about the flowering kimono inspired me to take a closer look at the subject. I am now obsessed with Itchiku Kubota, a Japanese textile artist “famous for reviving and modernizing a lost late-15th- to early-16th-century textile-dyeing and decorating technique called tsujigahana (literally, flowers at the crossroads).” When Kubota was in his early 20s, he saw a fragment of an old textile in the tsujigahana style at the Tokyo National Museum. He spent the rest of his life attempting to recreate this textile despite their being no masters to learn from, no written instructions nor even the particular silk fabric, since it had ceased to be woven many years before.

Kubota decided to create his own form of tsujigahana, called “Itchiku Tsujigahana,” through substitutions and the creation of new synthetic dyes. Forty year later, Kubota displayed his first kimono to the world. His master work is most certainly The Symphony of Light  - 34 luminous flowering kimono measuring 5 by 7 feet apiece that depicted the shifting seasons and nature. The entire series will contain 80 kimono. However, Kubota died in 2003, with the series incomplete. His son and former apprentices are attempting to finish the work.

Want more on the kimono? Check out the book Symbols of Japan: Thematic Motifs in Art and Design or this wonderful blog post on kimono design techniques.

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