Japanese Quilting: Evolution from BCE to NOW

 A friend, who creates beautiful art quilts, and I were in Paris. Of course, she had to check out the French fabric store. It was a surprise to me that almost all the quilters purchasing fabric were Americans and the fabric was from America!

Did you know that the USA is the leading exporter of Cotton? Or that we still have cotton textile mills? (I thought they went overseas and Sally Fields cum Norma Rae lost her union job!) In fact, these mills are spread over Southern states and the largest employs over 3500. 

 

Through my friend, I knew that Japan has many extraordinary quilters. Thinking that it was probably the result of their exposure to American post WW2, I was wrong about that, too. Seems they've been quilting since sometime around 300 BCE and 300 CE!

 

 

Japanese history follows the same route as American... or perhaps it's the reverse since they were first. Quilting was made for practical purposes... a warm coverlet or to offset the cold while outside. By the 8th century, quilting became an art form used to decorate the home such as futon covers or wall hangings.

 Just as Japanese decoration influenced the Impressionists, in turn, the growth of art quilts from other countries influenced the Japanese. Today, modern Japanese quilters eschew intricate patterns and motifs in preference for a minimalist approach making for visual stunning quilts in their simplicity.

Hayashi Kodenji: At the Peak of Japanese Cloisonne Enamel

 Last week's blog was a lead-in to this week. As I previously mentioned, the Impressionists were inspired by the art in painting, woodblocks, and paper that was being imported from Japan. There was another form of Japanese art that was captivating them. It was the beautiful and excellent cloisonne enamel vases made by Hayashi Kodenji (1831-1915)

 

 

 

Cloisonne is French for "closed." It's an ancient process where metal strips or wire (usually gold or silver) outline a design. The ancient Egyptians used the process and then put precious or semiprecious stones in the enclosed area. However, for the purposes of objects practically used, powdered enamel filled the open areas and then the whole object was fired in a kiln. 

 

 

Kodenji was a master of the technique.In his Nagoya studio, he was also a brilliant marketer. The story goes that he literally walked his vases to the port of Yokohama to place them carefully on the ships heading to Paris. He made sure they were featured at the 1868 & 1878 Paris and 1873 Vienna Expositions. 

The Europeans were quite taken with the beauty and quality of the workmanship. Kodenji, along with a few other Japanese cloisonne enamel masters were held in very high regard.

 (When you look at some of the floral designs do you see where Monet's Giverny gardens might have been conceived?)

 

In the way of passing the knowledge to the next generation, Kodenii's son, Hayashi Kodenji II, (1859-1922) would continue to operate the Nagoya studio. It's reported that the father and son worked together for 40 years and that makes it difficult to differentiate. I'd like to think it was collaborative. In any case, Nagoya Studios won at many exhibitions.

 The high demand meant many cloisonne enamel artisan studios thrived in Japan in what was to be the Golden Age of Japanese cloisonne enamel. The last studio is now gone. The archives, tools and enamel materials are preserved in the Museum of Kyoto.