Tsutsugaki - Indigo textiles from Japan
GUIMET MUSEUM
Tsutsugaki - Indigo textiles from Japan
The exhibition is organized by the Guimet National Museum of Asian Arts and Ueki et Associés
The public is invited to discover a collection of tsutsugaki exceptional, presented for the first time outside of Japan!
On the occasion of the Japanese season, the Guimet Museum wanted to introduce the public to the unknown but sensational art of tsutsugaki by exposing some thirty Tsutsugaki textiles from a private Japanese collection, one of the most rich in the world, accompanied by a dozen pieces from the prestigious Riboud Fund belonging to the Guimet Museum.
Le tsutsugaki (of tsutsu, "Tube" and gaki"Drawing") means a Japanese technique of indigo dyeing accompanied by decorations made by reserve with rice paste, but also and especially the textile works which proceed from it, of which the oldest testimonies go back to XVIe century. The fame of tsutsugaki comes from their almost invisible blend of fabrics, the strength of their colors and the quality of their drawings, comparable to real paintings that would only be missing a signature. Major artists are thought to have created motifs of tsutsugaki.
Like the art of printmaking, tsutsugaki is a folk art that is both drawing and dyeing, the result of a complex creative process that draws on a number of different skills (the draftsman, craftsman and dyer). Born in the time of Muromachi (1337-1573), the tsutsugaki peaked during the Edo period (1603-1868).
