Quilting in the midst of a global pandemic

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When Shizuko Kuroha learned in June 2021 that the Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival was canceled due to the pandemic, she knew she had to do something.

Held annually for 19 years, the event used to fill Tokyo Dome for six days with quilters from around the world as well as vendors, dealers and workshops accompanied by organized tours to local and regional quilters, dyers and textile makers. After Kuroha conferred with a group of fellow quilters, they formed the Japan Quilt Society and decided to hold their own event — the Tokyo Quilt Show — in March 2022 despite having little more than a few months to put it all together.

“A lot of quilters felt saved by making quilts during the pandemic,” says Kuroha, a master quilter and president of the Japan Quilt Society Board. “We wanted to provide a place to show their work and deepen the bond among quilters.”

Kuroha estimates Japan’s quilting community numbers around 2.5 million, with many regularly taking top spots in international competitions for their artistry and craftsmanship.

Mutsuko Yawatagaki is one of those quilters with new work to showcase. As the founder of the Izumo Museum of Quilt Art in Shimane Prefecture, Japan’s only museum devoted to quilting, Yawatagaki recently designed a new quilt celebrating the Oyama pilgrimage.

A nearly 70-kilometer walk from Tokyo to the peak of Mount Oyama in Kanagawa Prefecture, Yawatagaki’s quilt depicts the pilgrimage while honoring the sacred mountain and those who make the annual trek. Popularized in the Edo Period (1603-1868) by shopkeepers and craftsmen, particularly carpenters and steeplejacks who could see the mountain as they worked on the rooftops of the ancient capital, Mount Oyama appealed for the relative ease of getting there. Its close proximity to the city meant it was only a few days walk and, because it was officially declared a “local trip,” no special permits were required for travel.

Combining the white of the pilgrim jackets with the antique kimono silk was challenging for Yawatagaki. | COURTESY OF IZUMO MUSEUM OF QUILT ART

The Oyama pilgrimage also became a favorite subject for kabuki plays and ukiyo-e woodblock prints of the time, which only served to further fuel interest in it as a destination.

At its peak of popularity, nearly 200,000 pilgrims donned the signature white cotton gyōi (pilgrim coat) to make the journey each summer, almost one-fifth of Edo’s population. Even though numbers have dwindled over the years, the pilgrimage remains a vibrant part of life on the mountain.

It was those pilgrim coats that inspired Yawatagaki’s project. As pilgrim groups disbanded or dissolved, their jackets remained at the inns where they stayed during their annual visit. Donated for this project and with the groups’ permission by the late Takeshi Satoh, pilgrimage guide and owner of Oosumi Sansou, one of many pilgrim inns on Mount Oyama, they were something new for Yawatagaki.

“Normally, I work with kimono silk, and often old kimono silk,” Yawatagaki says. “I hadn’t worked with cotton for a long time, but I was very taken with the different whites and the various designs. I’d never seen or touched a pilgrim coat for myself before. They had an air of Edo about them that was very unique.”

Yawatagaki knew immediately that the coats would play a starring role as the mountain itself. The challenge was to work with the slightly different shades of white or off-white of coats that heralded from the late 19th to 20th centuries and their unique designs.

Many pilgrims have been coming to Mount Oyama for hundreds of years, and groups often commission a specific design for the kanji characters that make up their names. Hence, the designs emblazoned across the back of the jackets varied from simple black or blue lettering to complex patterns and stylized kanji characters in combinations of colors.

For Yawatagaki, there was tale upon tale there, and each jacket needed to be able to find its own voice while blending with the others to make the whole.

“All of my quilts have a story,” she says, “but in this work, it was especially important to keep the personality of the coats alive. They are the center of the story.”

Intricate hand stitching of the quilt repeats the shapes of the pieces and is a distinct feature of quilt art in Japan. | COURTESY OF IZUMO MUSEUM OF QUILT ART
Intricate hand stitching of the quilt repeats the shapes of the pieces and is a distinct feature of quilt art in Japan. | COURTESY OF IZUMO MUSEUM OF QUILT ART

Yet, how to tell this particular story well while giving all of these elements as much emphasis as possible proved difficult with her initial plan of cutting them into squares. When she hit on the idea of shaping the pieces made from the coats like a mountain, the puzzle came together.

Rising up from the surrounding landscape as the central image is Mount Oyama made of the coats with the symbols for each group prominently displayed and the topmost one sharing the name of the mountain.

At its feet, the forests and rivers that the pilgrims would have passed through on foot en route from Edo, are represented with a rich array of greens, grays, blues and browns made from antique kimono silk from the 18th and 19th centuries. These are cut in traditional Japanese patterns of asanoha (hemp leaf), ichimatsu (checks), kikkō (tortoise shell) and hishi (diamonds).

The sky over Mount Oyama consists of more grays and browns along with blues and blacks in solid and patterned pieces cut into wachigai (a variation on the seven treasures motif) and a variation on the yabane (arrow) motif. Each shape represents natural and sacred elements that recur in traditional Japanese textiles and crafts that also made them perfect for this portrait of the pilgrimage and its mountain.

Underscoring each of the pieces and their materials is the hand stitching that binds it all together. Close examination reveals a repetition of asanoha, ichimatsu, and kikkō but also intersecting circles that seem to rise up from within the pilgrim coats.

“The section done in the asanoha motif represents the pine trees on the mountain but also provides a sense of growth and of life,” Yawatagaki says. “The circles suggest the spirit that embodies this place and these coats. Each stitch was made with a sense of prayer that all would go well for everyone.”

There is, of course, one more character present. Just over Mount Oyama’s right shoulder stands Mount Fuji, depicted in strips of white, gray and purple silk. For this, Yawatagaki took inspiration from the ukiyo-e woodblock prints of the period where the two mountains are often seen together.

The quilt also has the blessing of Oyama Afuri Shrine, which is planning to exhibit it later this year.

“Not being familiar with quilting, I wasn’t sure what to expect,” says Kunihiko Meguro, a priest at Oyama Afuri Shrine. “But the quilt came out beautifully. I’m sure that seeing it will inspire people to want to know more about our unique history.”

Combining the white of the pilgrim jackets with the antique kimono silk was challenging for Yawatagaki. | COURTESY OF IZUMO MUSEUM OF QUILT ART
Combining the white of the pilgrim jackets with the antique kimono silk was challenging for Yawatagaki. | COURTESY OF IZUMO MUSEUM OF QUILT ART

Quilting is often associated with Europe and North America, but seeds of the idea were first planted in Japan in the 1950s by American missionaries, military wives and wives of businessmen who taught Japanese women some of the techniques.

The craft truly took root in Japan when “Little House on the Prairie,” the 1970s American television series about a pioneer family and based on the Laura Ingalls Wilder books, aired. Budding quilters recorded the show and paused on the scenes of Ingalls working on her quilts in order to study her techniques.

According to quilt researcher and author, Teresa Duryea Wong, what unfolded over the next 20 years was the gradual combining of textile traditions into a uniquely Japanese art form.

“It is the technical precision, attention to detail and aesthetic that set Japanese quilts apart,” Wong says.

“Because so many quilters are learning under rigorous teaching systems, they are wholly dedicated to creating flawless art,” she says. “The vast majority of quilters working today are finishing their quilts with hand quilting, and this is rare and completely unique to Japan.

“In addition to the meticulous hand stitches, Japanese quilters create stunning applique and pieced patchworks that are near perfect in their technical qualities. Lastly, the Japanese aesthetic — whether it’s the sense of wa, or the beautiful taupe palette, or indigo, or even contemporary colors and fabrics — many of these quilts are instantly recognizable around the world as distinctly Japanese.”

For Yawatagaki, the art of quilting is also a way to transform the past into something that will live into the future.

“It’s a way to pass these things on to the next generation,” Yawatagaki says. “We don’t, for example, wear kimono as much as we used to, but if we use the material in a quilt, this helps continue a part of Japanese heritage that needs to be preserved.”

The Tokyo Quilt Show will run from March 25 to 28. The Oyama pilgrimage quilt will be on display at Oyama Afuri Shrine later this year.

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