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2011 Japanese Texle Study Tour 1
The Japanese Texle Study Tour15 - 25 April, 2012In 2011 I visited Japan to explore Japanese texles and the art of Shibori and
indigo dyeing. The beauty of Japanese art and texles made a huge impression on
me. The highlight of my visit was to meet Bryan Whitehead the owner of
Japanese Texle Workshops.
Bryan, originally from the West Coast of Canada, has been living in Japan for 23
years, growing and processing his own indigo for 18 years, and raising silkworms
for 14 years. He runs a small texle school at his tradional Japanese farmhouse
that focuses on indigo, natural dyes, shibori, stencil dyeing, thread making from
silk cocoons, and weaving on tradional Japanese looms. The house is situated in
a mountain village in Fujino just outside of Tokyo. The village is well known for
silk farming. Bryans work with tradional Japanese texles if oen documented
in the Japanese media. His students come from many parts of Japan.
My interest in cra has been evolving over many years as I lived, worked and
became exposed to the cultures and cras of various countries, from the Sahara
regions of North Africa and the equally fascinang empty quarter of the Arabian
Peninsula to the tropical regions of Papua New Guinea and the Pacic. My Thaimother inuenced my love of sewing and basket making, while I explored and
worked with quilng, embroidery, spinning and natural dyeing. In addion to
exhibing my work in Barcelona, Houston, Abu Dhabi and Melbourne, I have
been sharing my interests through regular posts on my blog. My recent interest
with tradional Japanese texles took me to Japan, where I met Bryan.
When I met Bryan we discovered that his experse in Japanese tradional texles
and my own interest in cras, inuenced by extensive travel and an expatriate
lifestyle, complement each other well. So Bryan and I have decided to oer a
glimpse into the wonderful world of Tradional Japanese Texles by arranging a
study tour available to a small group of no more than 10 persons. There are
currently no radiaon health concerns associated with the meltdowns at theFukushima Nuclear Power plants in any of the areas covered by this study tour,
including the Japanese Texle Workshops farmhouse where you will be staying.
Tour CostsTour Package: AUD $ 3,800
Package Includes:
All fees for Japanese Textile Workshops, and all
supplies. If you want to dye extras for gifts etc.
the cloth and indigo will be available at cost
price.
All accommodation (first night at Shinjuku
Hilton, Tokyo and 10 nights in traditional
Japanese style farmhouse - double occupancy)
All breakfasts (Hilton buffet breakfast plus
healthy Japanese breakfasts)
All transportation within Japan
Meals: 2 evening meals (welcome and farewell
dinners)
Museum entrance fees
Bilingual (English-Japanese) tour guide service
as applicable
Personal luggage transfer required (airport to
Fujino and return)
Cost of Hachioji Indigo workshop fee and all
supplies (approx. 2000)
Package Excludes: International air fares
Travel insurance
Restaurant meals except the 2 evening meals
included above
Entrance fee to Onsen, Japanese bath
(approx. 600)
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2011 Japanese Texle Study Tour 2
ITINERARYDay One: Sunday April 15thYou arrive at Tokyo Narita Internaonal airport. Nat and Bryan will
greet you and take you by Narita Express reserved seat train to the
Shinjuku Hilton for an overnight stay. We will have our tour
orientaon and dinner in the Shinjuku district nearby.
Day Two: Monday April 16th
Aer breakfast, depart Shinjuku Hilton and travel by train to the
village of Fujino. The village was chosen as one of 100 most scenic
tradional mountain villages in Japan by a leading newspaper in 2010
(1 hour 10min). From the staon take a short minibus ride to the
Japanese Texle Workshops tradional farmhouse accommodaon.
Time to refresh and sele into accommodaon before having
Japanese lunch prepared by local Japanese cooks. Observaon during
preparaon and presentaon of lunch is welcome. Acvies start
aer lunch with indigo dyeing several tradional Japanese tenugui
towels. Refresh and prepare for dinner at a local Japanese grilled
chicken restaurant. You cook your own on charcoal with chopscks.
Day Three: Tuesday April 17thIn the morning you will work with indigo at the vats, dyeing shibori
cloth and looking at samples, books and prints about the breadth of
Japanese shibori. You will also learn to dye skeins of linen thread. For
each step of the dyeing process, Bryan will give you all the
informaon you need to ensure that you will have a very clear
understanding by the end of the study tour of how indigo works with
dierent kinds of vats, both in Japan and other countries.
We will all make and enjoy udon noodles for lunch with local
mountain vegetable tempura. Udon noodles are a tradional form of
Japanese wheat noodles. Aer lunch you will dye some small pieces
of silk with a yellow dye and over dye it with indigo to get greens. We
will look at the Japanese colour ideals and how the Chinese character
system names the colours so poecally.
Later in the aernoon we will explore the village and have dinner in a
local restaurant with an opon to try out an onsen, a local hot spring.
The men and women bathe separately.
Dinner and the oponal hot spring are not covered, but neither is
expensive. Both are experiences not to be missed.
Day Four: Wednesday April 18thThis will be a full day of unique acvies. We will take a day trip
from Fujino to visit a working fermentaon indigo studio making
stencil dyed kimono, a silk texle arsts studio, a walk by a cherry
tree lined river in full blossom, and perhaps a visit to a sake brewery.
We will take a special Japanese packed lunch to have in a Japanese
garden. Dinner will be at a tradional old Japanese house serving
grilled trout.
Day Five: Thursday April 19thA resul but interesng day at Japanese Texle Workshops. In the
morning we look at katazome Japanese stencil cung and dying. We
will cut small stencils on persimmon tannin paper to use later. You
will have a chance to weave the thread you indigo dyed on Tuesdayon some tradional Japanese kimono looms. You will weave enough
to make a small Japanese style bag. The bag also requires a
drawstring. These will be braided on kumihimo stands. We will dye
with Madder, some silk, and then over dye part of it with indigo to
get shades of purple. Lunch will be at the Japanese Texle
Workshops farmhouse. Dinner will be a Japanese style BBQ under a
canopy of cherry blossoms.
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2011 Japanese Texle Study Tour 3
Day Six: Friday April 20thThis is a special day with a trip to Mt. Fuji only one hour away by
minibus. Bryan will share his local knowledge as your tour guide.
During the day we will visit:
the Kaiki silk museum hp://www.pref.yamanashi.jp/kaiki/
a poery studio
a visit to the Mt. Fuji climbers shrine
lunch at a the Fujizakura beer brewery on the slopes of Mt. Fuji
hp://www.fujizakura-beer.jp/
Dinner out, and be home in me to do some weaving or braiding or
e dying before bed
Day Seven: Saturday April 21stA day trip to Tokyo to visit the famous Japanese Folk Cras Museum
in the morning hp://www.mingeikan.or.jp/english/
We will have me in the aernoon to visit shopping areas in Tokyo
and ea/anque markets. The museum entrance fee is covered as
well as the train to and from Tokyo. We will have lunch and dinner in
Tokyo.
Day Eight: Sunday April 22ndIn the morning we will pracce Stencil dying/katazome at the indigo
vats. We will use the stencils we cut on Thursday using a paste made
from rice as a resist. You will be able to make a myriad of these
stencil prints on cloth and use them as table centres, gis, coasters,
patchwork pieces, and small bag material. In the aernoon we will
http://www.pref.yamanashi.jp/kaiki/http://www.pref.yamanashi.jp/kaiki/http://www.fujizakura-beer.jp/http://www.fujizakura-beer.jp/http://www.fujizakura-beer.jp/http://www.fujizakura-beer.jp/http://www.mingeikan.or.jp/english/http://www.mingeikan.or.jp/english/http://www.mingeikan.or.jp/english/http://www.fujizakura-beer.jp/http://www.pref.yamanashi.jp/kaiki/8/6/2019 Study Tour Flyer
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2011 Japanese Texle Study Tour 4
Payment of tour fee and registraon details
A deposit of AUD $500 towards the tour package fee is required
at the me of registraon to reserve your place on the tour. The
balance of the tour package fee is due by January 15, 2012.
Payment of the tour package fee may be made by instalments
up to this date. If the tour is fully booked, you will have the
opon of being placed on a waing list.
The deposit will be refunded (less a handling fee of AUD $100) if
you inform us of your intent to cancel by December 15, 2011. In
case of cancellaon by the organisers, the fee including the
deposit will be refunded in full. The organisers are not
responsible for refunding the cost of airfares and travel insur-
ance in case of cancellaon.
For more informaon please contact:
Nat Palaskas
Email:[email protected]
Visit tour blog at: hp://japanesetexlestudytour.blogspot.com
Phone: +61 (3) 9562 1176
Mobile: 0418 660 980
visit a few local poers and arsts in the village. Lunch will be at a
delicious Korean restaurant and dinner at a local restaurant.
Day Nine: Monday April 23rdThis is the silk reeling day. We will take a look at dierent ways to
make thread from cocoons. We will reel silk, de-gum it, dye it with a
natural dye, and then use kumihimo stands to make the cords for a
small bag made from our stencil dyed material. We will have lunch
and dinner locally.
Day Ten: Tuesday April 24thThis is an open day to try out your favourite dyeing techniques or to
just chill out. Bryan will be available to help and oer advice on
whatever you decide to do this day. You might also want to use the
local post oce to send a parcel back to your home country to
lighten your luggage. Bryan has an extensive library on Japanese
texles and you can make photocopies of anything that has caught
your eye. We will have a farewell dinner at the unique Shu
restaurant in Fujino.
Day Eleven: Wednesday April 25thWe rise early for breakfast and to board the Narita Express reserved
seat train for our trip back to Tokyo and Narita airport.
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]://japanesetextilestudytour.blogspot.com/http://japanesetextilestudytour.blogspot.com/http://japanesetextilestudytour.blogspot.com/mailto:[email protected]