Friday, January 30, 2009

Tokyo, day 2

One of the reasons to stop by in Tokyo was of course to visit the Great Quilt Festival. So, off we went on the second morning, map in hands, trying to find Tokyo Dome which was supposed to be within walking distance of our ryokan.
This is me...

...taking this picture on the way to the Dome...
(While I'm typing this post today, this is the view I have...
I finished these socks just in time for the trip).
Actually, the Dome is really not that far from the ryokan. We can already see it down the street...

Oh, oh, it's not ten o'clock yet, but we won't be alone ...

Sorry, no pictures of quilts. Photographing was permitted, but only for personal use.
The quilts were absolutely gorgeous. I have never seen a show with so many quilts of perfect workmanship. I must admit that some appliqué quilts were so perfect that they bored me a little... but there were also many beautiful indigo quilts, and lots of very original designs.
Then, the exhibition "Forest: everlasting life" featured quilts made by 75 top Japanese quilters (I didn't know there were so many of them... ;-) ).
There was also a special exhibit devoted to 8 very famous Japanese masters, and we had the privilege to meet Shizuko Kuroha who is one of my idols and is a lovely and charming lady. Noriko Masui was very nice too.
There were many more other exhibits to see. The show was getting more and more crowded when I tried to visit the merchants booths. I bought three cute zakka books, and also a few fat quarters from Marunan booth (Marunan is a very large fabric store in Shibuya, Tokyo, and I knew I would have no time to visit the shop). Of course, I couldn't leave the show without buying the catalogues.
Here are my new fabrics... 

I gave up at around 4 o'clock and went out. It was still sunny. We had a little walk in this crazy neighbourhood, full of shops, restaurants and amusement attractions, before heading back to the hotel.
In the evening, we met my former sumi-e teacher Ichiro Sato Tessen, who's now living again in Tokyo after many years spent in Europe. If you google his name, you'll find some of his paintings on the web.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cela me paraît très fascinant cette deuxième journée ! Je suis surtout curieuse de voire le quilt ou les autres ouvrages que tu vas faire suite à cet achat de beaux tissus. Et toutes ses impressions sui sont dans ta tête maintenant ! cela doit être enivrant de rentrer dans un dôme rempli de tant de belles choses ! notre dôme à Enghien sera plus petit ... ;-)
a+

Anonymous said...

It's sounds like you had a wonderful time!

dutchcomfort said...

What a wonderful adventure to see all the Japanese quilt artists’ work!

Love the fabrics you bought, they are so beautiful!

Linda’s Textiles said...

Nice fabrics! I'm thinking of doing a quilting tour of Japan in Nov which includes a quilt show in Yokohama. I got the impression that traditional quilts dominate. Was there much contemporary work on show?

sharon young said...

What a brilliant trip, it was so nice to share a little of it on your post. I'm afraid I know nothing about Japanese quilts, but it sounds like a mammoth show.

Lovely fabrics.

artfilstitch said...

I love everything about Japan Quilts, but would agree with you about the many perfect applique quilts. They are so well focused in their work. So happy to hear that you saw some of their featured
masters. I took a class from Noriko Masui last year and she is wonderful...so patient, excellent teacher, her work is lovely. I will email some photos to you. Thanks so much for sharing your trip.
Liz