Image: Keiko Futatsuya, Detail of Sashiko embroidery.

Join us on Saturday 20 March at 2pm GMT for a virtual Pecha-Kucha afternoon. Japanese for ‘chit-chat’, we will be covering a range of Japanese textiles and techniques including Kumihimo, Sashiko, Boro, Indigo and much more. Read on for an introduction to some of the experts in our exciting programme.

Makiko Tada is a researcher, designer and lecturer and has published about and produced Japanese braids ‘Kumihimo’ for 50 years. As well as writing her seven "Comprehensive Treatise of Braids", she has repaired medieval braids - picture scrolls and scripture braids from the eighth to fourteenth centuries - for museums and shrines. A series of square braids which she collected from this period are now preserved as important national treasures in Japan. She has since developed a braiding machine that manufactures braids that can be developed to produce square braids with various cross sections such as L, C, and H types.

Image: Portrait of Yoshiko Iwamoto Wada © Marie Taillefer

Yoshiko Iwamoto Wada is an artist, curator, researcher, and an exponent of traditional and sustainable practices in textile production. She has written several definitive books on Shibori, including the first technical instruction book in English on kasuri, Japanese ikat weaving. Now President of the World Shibori Network, she also consults for designers, including for the Hollywood film, “Memoirs of a Geisha”; Cirque du Soleil; and Christina Kim of dosa inc. Yoshiko is a leader in the Slow Fibre movement which works with regional textile production centers and traditional artisan communities to create culturally, socially and environmentally sustainable practices.

Image: Keiko Futatsuya, example of a garment repaired using Boro techniques.

Atsushi Futatsuya is a Sashiko artisan and story-teller. His expertise in Sashiko comes from his mother, Keiko Futatsuya, a great Sashiko talent who taught him the art from a young age. In 2015, Keiko started Sashi.Co to share the beauty and process of Sashiko, and inspired by his mother, Atsushi now shares the techniques and stories of Sashiko through Upcycle Stitches. Atsushi focuses on the importance of tradition and process. His work not only communicates the beauty of hand stitching, but it also reminds us of a more spiritual relationship with cloth and how, through Sashiko, you communicate to the fabric while stitching.

For more information, and to purchase tickets, visit our talk page: Japanese Textiles, Pecha-Kucha