Journal

Essays on Japanese textile history, craft, and the culture of ceremonial silk — alongside guides to caring for and living with ceremonial silk objects.

The Chromatic Harvest — 草木染め

What a European eye notices first in Japanese ceremonial silk is the colour. An indigo that is not quite navy, not quite violet. A gold that has aged away from...

The Chromatic Harvest — 草木染め

What a European eye notices first in Japanese ceremonial silk is the colour. An indigo that is not quite navy, not quite violet. A gold that has aged away from...

KOYOMI — The 72 Micro-Seasons

The traditional Japanese calendar did not divide the year into four seasons. It divided it into 72: micro-seasons of roughly five days each, each named for a specific natural event....

KOYOMI — The 72 Micro-Seasons

The traditional Japanese calendar did not divide the year into four seasons. It divided it into 72: micro-seasons of roughly five days each, each named for a specific natural event....

The Eloquence of Small Things

An idea arrives once, if you are lucky, and changes the angle of everything. On the antidote to noise: the particular eloquence of a single made object, and what it...

The Eloquence of Small Things

An idea arrives once, if you are lucky, and changes the angle of everything. On the antidote to noise: the particular eloquence of a single made object, and what it...

The Sleeping Surface

There is a garment that most people who have never worn a kimono have never heard of. It is the nagajuban — the underrobe worn beneath the kimono, next to...

The Sleeping Surface

There is a garment that most people who have never worn a kimono have never heard of. It is the nagajuban — the underrobe worn beneath the kimono, next to...

The Grammar of Colour

There is a word in Japanese — iro (色) — that means colour, and yet it also means, in its deeper register, feeling, desire, the visible world. Colour, in the...

The Grammar of Colour

There is a word in Japanese — iro (色) — that means colour, and yet it also means, in its deeper register, feeling, desire, the visible world. Colour, in the...

The Patchin

The patchin is the traditional Japanese bag handle: two turned wooden rods, joined by the silk body of the bag. The silk loops over the rods and the weight of...

The Patchin

The patchin is the traditional Japanese bag handle: two turned wooden rods, joined by the silk body of the bag. The silk loops over the rods and the weight of...