Continuing from part three:Before we entered NijoJo, a friendly-looking man approached us on the street as we were walking. After showing his "credentials" (an article in the local newspaper about his art), he asked if we'd like to come to his studio, see him work, and learn about his artwork. We were intrigued, so after leaving the castle, we walked to the address on his business card (easier said than done-see my previous blog entry about finding addresses in Japan!) and received a warm greeting at his studio/house.
In brief, he paints on silk to create family crests that are incorporated into kimonos. The name for family crest in Japanese is "kamon" (see Wikipedia for more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamon). It was absolutely remarkable to watch him painting
these intricate designs, mostly by hand. For the basic outline, a stencil is occasionally used, and for geometric patterns, a compass is used, but all of the fine detail is done manually. As you can hopefully see in the close-up picture, each pattern is exactly the same. The amount of practice (and patience!) required is astonishing.In one of the pictures you can see some of the kamon in color and the pattern book for the designs. There are thousands of designs and the artist, Toshio Kashima, has a couple hundred committed entirely to memory.
After enjoying his demonstration, when we told him our plans for the rest of the day, he offered
to give us a ride up the hill to the Kiyomizu Temple (from my previous post). On the way, he gave us a mini-tour of that area of Kyoto. He is an amazing artist and a kind and gracious host. Kashima-san, doumo arigatou gozaimashita!
