Textile of Japan, Thomas Murray, Virginia Soenksen

A rich archive of cloth comes alive—not simply as decorative artifacts, but as woven statements of identity, place, and hand-craft. The book roams from the hardy indigos of Honshu and Kyushu—whose subtle textures and resist-patterns recall centuries of village life and everyday labor—to the flamboyant cotton kimonos of Okinawa and the deeply tactile, organic materials of Ainu bark cloth and fish-skin robes in Hokkaido. This is not fashion spectacle; it is the unadorned poetry of thread, dye, weave and fibre. Photography presents every ripple in the fabric, every nuanced hue of natural dye, inviting the reader to slow-see the cloth as Selvedge readers might do: examining grain, stitch, imperfection, history.

Evoking the spirit of the Mingei movement, the volume situates each textile in its cultural, ritual, social context—workwear, festival garb, ceremonial robes—so that you observe not just what people wore, but how garment and textile were embedded in the rhythms of daily life. Over 500 colour illustrations across its 520 pages render both bold graphic forms and whisper-thin textures with equal care. It is a manifesto of materiality, a celebration of making by hand—and of the beauty that accrues in use, tradition, and subtle regional difference.

About the Author
Thomas Murray is a distinguished dealer of Asian and tribal art, whose collecting sensibility leans strongly toward the tactile, vernacular, and under-documented. His personal collection of Japanese and Indonesian textiles reflects both deep connoisseurship and a commitment to preserving cloths often made by anonymous hands. He has also served in formal advisory roles, including as a past president of the Antique Tribal Art Dealers Association (ATADA), and on the U.S. Cultural Property Advisory Committee—work that underlines his engagement with both the material and ethical dimensions of textile collecting.

Publication date: 2019
Publisher: Prestel Publishing
Pages: 520
ISBN: 9783791385204