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 Cloth That Remembered Everything
I keep a furoshiki on the hook by my door. It is not particularly old — maybe forty years, cotton, indigo-dyed somewhere in the Kansai region. I use it for...
The Cloth That Remembered Everything
I keep a furoshiki on the hook by my door. It is not particularly old — maybe forty years, cotton, indigo-dyed somewhere in the Kansai region. I use it for...
Cherry Blossom Season in Japan — What It Taught...
There is a week in Japan — just one week, sometimes less — when the entire country holds its breath. The cherry blossoms open. The sakura. Not the deep pink...
Cherry Blossom Season in Japan — What It Taught...
There is a week in Japan — just one week, sometimes less — when the entire country holds its breath. The cherry blossoms open. The sakura. Not the deep pink...
Welcome to The Silk Journal
There are objects in the world that carry more than beauty. A length of hand-woven silk, folded away in a Japanese tansu chest for fifty years. A Fukuro Obi that...
Welcome to The Silk Journal
There are objects in the world that carry more than beauty. A length of hand-woven silk, folded away in a Japanese tansu chest for fifty years. A Fukuro Obi that...
The Pillow That Remembers
The pieces that arrive at Renaras come from Japanese estates. Silk of this age and provenance has qualities nothing new can imitate: a depth of colour synthetic dyes cannot reach,...
The Pillow That Remembers
The pieces that arrive at Renaras come from Japanese estates. Silk of this age and provenance has qualities nothing new can imitate: a depth of colour synthetic dyes cannot reach,...
The Wardrobe That Holds $220 Billion Worth of F...
There is a wardrobe somewhere in Kyoto — cedar-lined, the way the old ones are — that has not been fully opened in twenty years. The woman who owned it...
The Wardrobe That Holds $220 Billion Worth of F...
There is a wardrobe somewhere in Kyoto — cedar-lined, the way the old ones are — that has not been fully opened in twenty years. The woman who owned it...
The Case for Lattice
Minimalist rooms have a specific vulnerability: they can tip from calm into cold. There is a threshold where "uncluttered" becomes "empty," where the eye, finding nothing to rest on, begins...
The Case for Lattice
Minimalist rooms have a specific vulnerability: they can tip from calm into cold. There is a threshold where "uncluttered" becomes "empty," where the eye, finding nothing to rest on, begins...