I have recently been to Japan and while I was there I did lots of research on Japanese textile art and techniques. I am planning another Search Press book for publication in 2008 so the information gathered was very useful.
In the Seiwa shop in Tokyo. With Keiko at Tanaka-nao in Kyoto.
I visited a couple of silk painting and dye suppliers in Japan, one in Tokyo called Seiwa and the other in Kyoto called Tanaka-nao and had hours of fun trying to understand what was on sale and how it was used.
Some of the equipment and materials. With Ken-ichi Utsuki.
I also spent an afternoon in Kyoto with a very interesting man called Ken-ichi Utsuke in his house and workshop where he practises his craft of traditional indigo dyeing on cottons and silks, he is one of the last indigo dyers in Kyoto using natural indigo.
I also took a two hour trainride out of Tokyo to a small town called Kawaguchiko and visited a private museum which showed the most amazing silk kimono produced by an artist described as a living national treasure in Japan. He died a few years ago but left a treasure-house of painted silks in his museum just across the lake from his favourite subject, Mount Fuji. His name... Itchiku Kubota.