Kantha and Sashiko-Needle Works from Bengal and Tohoku

September 9th (Tue) - November 24th (Mon), 2014
Kantha is a traditional quilted fabric of the former
Bengal region which is located in the fertile Bengal
delta including Bangladesh and West Bengal, India.
Characteristically, ordinary Kantha works have lotus
flowers in the middle and paisleys on four corners. In
addition, plants and animals such as the tree of life,
flowers, fish, horses, elephants, tigers, peacocks, andsnakes, festival floats on which people carry God andparade a street, scissors, nuts cutter and other daily
objects are livingly and vividly drawn by stitches.
Kantha like a picture drawn by a child with mother’s
love, an accurate Kantha, Kantha like a picture diaryof an ordinary life, and Kantha with pray for a family’s
fortune. Each of them attracts people to its story.
Kantha which is as large as a bed sheet is used as ablanket. Kantha as if a picture closely and carefully
drawn, which are shown in this exhibition, are put on
the floor on weddings or in a ceremony and brides,
grooms and attendants sit around them and appreciatethem. Smaller Kantha was also used as a carpet in aceremony.
The former Bengal region is a place where cotton
weavings of high quality are made with extremely
thin thread, which is known as ‘Dhaka muslin’. Therewomen have a custom to draw alpona, auspicious
omens motifs, with rice flour to invite God to theirhome earliest in the every morning in front of theirentrance. Kantha are made in such areas with several
pieces of used white cotton saris and dhotis (waistgarment mainly used by Hindu men). They are put together
and stitched into various patterns basically with blue
threads dyed with indigo and red threads dyed withmadder. Moreover, white backgrounds around patterns
are quilted with fine ripples of white stitches.
Japanese sashiko works, on the other hand, mainly
from Tohoku area have several different kinds; Tsugaru
kogin and Nambu hishi-zashi in Aomori prefecture,
Shonai sashiko in Yamagata prefecture and so on.
Tsugaru kogin is odd numbers of stitches with white
cotton threads on thickly dyed indigo hemp ground.
Groups of three, five, seven and one. hishi-zashi works
in Nambu area are worked in groups of even numberstitches with indigo cotton threads on pale indigo

hemp ground. Both Tsugaru kogin and hishi-zashi inNambu were mainly made into workers clothes andsome aprons with vivid-color wool threads would befound among hishi-zashi works.
In the Shonai region, a technique of sashiko wasespecially developed. Clothes used in Kyoto or Osaka
area were shipped by cargo ships called kitamaebune to this area. Then women put several pieces inlayers, stitched them checked patterns or herringbone
patterns and dyed them with indigo in the end. They
were mainly made into workers short coats. Moreover,
women embroidered on tabi socks, protectors forankles and even tabi socks for children. In fact,
embroidery not only gave warmth and strength toclothes, but it became beautiful patterns and thus itenriched their severe life in a snow country.
Kantha, colorful patterns on white grounds from
Bengal region, and indigo-dyed sashiko works of
Tohoku area in Japan give us different impressions
to us at first sight. Both, however, have somethingin common. That is, women learned technique fromfive or six years old and embroidered stitch by stitch,
spending much time. They were too poor to buy
clothes or textiles freely, but women of both Bengal
and Tohoku made stitches on used clothes within theirreach, hoping comfortable happiness of their family.
This handiwork itself must have been their comfort aswell as their pleasure in a strict life.
Ms. Hiroko Iwatate, who is known as a collector ofIndian textiles, first encountered Kantha just when she
began to go to India in 1970’s. Ms. Iwatate stayed withher friend in India and a graceful lady visited there oneday. She brought a piece of Kantha. White, gentle andsoft. The tone of colors was totally different from othertextiles of India. It was beautiful like a white egret ina muddy pond. Ms. Iwatate got moved that this waswhat she had wanted.
In this exhibition, about 70 pieces of Kantha works
from the collection of Iwatate Folk Textile Museum
and about 60 pieces of Sashiko works of Tohoku areafrom the Japan Folk Crafts Museum collection areintroduced.
*cooperated by Iwatate Folk Textile Museum

Various Japanese Crafts

Many craft works which
decorate people’s daily lives havebeen made in various places inJapan. Jizai, a pot hanger used ina irori hearth, signboards, chests
used on a large ship, iron pots
and bottles, layered boxes andlidded jars made of glass andso on. Please see a simple andpowerful beauty which crafts fora daily life have.

Museum ShopFirst
Floor

Urushi Works of Japan

Urushi paintings usually haveplants, flowers and auspicious
omen motifs with vermillionurushi or other color urushi. Themuseum stores bowls, trays boxes
and many others. Its attractive
feature is living pictures whichwere drawn by craftspeople
and became like patterns. In
this room fine works of urushi
paintings are on display.

Works by Keisuke Serizawa

A world-famous stencil dyer
Keisuke Serizawa(1895-1984)
encountered Soetsu Yanagi,
founder of the museum, andjoined the Mingei Movement. He
designed, made stencil pattern,
and dyed by himself. In thisroom, a wide variety of Serizawa’s
works are on display such askimono, obi, washi paper, privately
printed books, books designed by
Serizawa and so on.

The Pouring–from Japanese folk kilns-Kettles, pots, jugs, andspouted sake jars and so on;these were essential pouring
vessels. Folk kilns in various
areas produced these pouring
vessels with mater ials andw a y s ro o t e d i n e a c h a re a .
Unintentional crafts which wereproduced truly to their usage,
with aging, have been healthyand so distinct.

Sometsuke Porcelain ofJapan and China

SecondFloor

White ground, cobalt blue
under glaze porcelains. Oldimari, which has a dignified
beauty and refreshingappearance, and old sometsuke
made by Chinese potters toorder from Japanese tea masters,
which has free-spirited patterns
and attractive forms are ondisplay.

SashikoStationary ofJoseon Dynasty

In the era of Joseon Dynasty,
which was praised as ‘a countryof writings’ later, diverse kinds ofstationary were made. Especially,various forms and designs ofwater droppers were one of
the most appealing features ofJoseon crafts. In this room, brushholders, paper scroll holders, inkstone and ink stone boxes, letter
boxes and other stationary andstationary furniture made fromdifferent materials are on display.

Kantha