Study Tour Brochure

8/6/2019 Study Tour Brochure

1/4

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)


2/4


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.


3/4


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/


4/4


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]

Study Tour Brochure

Documents

Transcript of Study Tour Brochure