1. to cling to something. To be attached to something.
2. To be deeply attached to something and to be unable to separate from it. Also, its appearance.
-The Japanese Dictionary of the Japanese Language (Seisen-ban)

The inspiration for this work came from a handkerchief my grandmother had left on her wardrobe.

When I pulled the weft thread from the edge of the folded handkerchief, the fabric instantly pulled tight. Still, as I continued to pull out the threads one by one, the remaining fringed warp threads swayed on the worktable, creating fine layers of color. The pulled and fluffed weft threads clung to them, adding more texture and color. I continued to move my hands, feeling a strange affection for this overlapping mass of threads.

As I worked silently at this endless work, memories of my grandmother, which I had never recalled before, came and went.

The back figure standing in the kitchen in the western sunlight,
the sound of the TV after a fight reached me through the wall,
the thoughts I couldn’t hear, the words I couldn’t say

Some memories are peaceful, others are not. However, when I recall the past by facing the cloth in this way, the frayed and painful memories do not stay there, but seem to change their texture and color as they intertwine with the memories before and after them.

The past that had been lingering in my mind was not cleared away. However, as I continued to touch the pieces of memories that were constantly being pulled from my heart, they became entangled, torn, and intertwined, and the texture of my past changed.

Memories that cling to my heart and never leave it, I will live my life with the past that is changing its expression.

　　Material：Futon cover, Cotton thread, Water-soluble nonwoven fabric

　　Photography by YASUNARI KIKUMA / ©︎ FASHION FRONTIER PROGRAM 

　Blotched on countless old clothes that have nowhere to go

　the thoughts of women

　I remember the thoughts that dwelled in that cloth

　the thoughts that used to dwell there

　The time that had stopped

　I unravel and reweave

　by re-knitting it into a single form

　I wanted to carry on somewhere else.

*****

In the course of her daily work, she felt uncomfortable with the ease and quantity of consuming materials bought from elsewhere. As she shared these feelings with those around her, she began to receive an increasing number of donations of fabrics that she no longer needed.

–In the closet of an acquaintance’s parents’ house, there were countless flower-patterned scarves, lace and dress-like blouses that had been left behind by her mother, who was moving into a nursing home. These clothes, which had been left in the back of the drawer with hardly any chance to be worn, had been collected to cheer herself up a little during her days of housework and childcare in a place where she was married and had no friends. An acquaintance told us that not only the time spent wearing them, but also the elation she felt when she got them, supported her mother’s life.

–When I looked into the lining of a hanten left behind in an old house in Yamanashi Prefecture, I found a patchwork of brightly coloured fabrics. I felt a sense of love when I saw these designs hidden in the back of these practical garments, which no one could see, and which were used to help the wearer survive the cold of winter. I could see a woman sewing prickly garments to lift her spirits in the house, which used to be a silkworm farm.

It was as if I could hear their voices as they tried to live as a mother and a wife, but also as ‘a woman’ through their clothes.

They tried to be strong by dressing and sought comfort in dressing. I keenly felt the thoughts and feelings of these women that seeped into each and every garment.

In the torrent of the times, these items were separated from their owners and lost their way. As if to loosen the time that had stopped in them, the old clothes were untied, torn and twisted.

The work of weaving the threads spun in this way, one by one, with one’s own hands, is not merely recycling, but seems to be a time for unravelling the feelings of sadness and loneliness that reside in them, re-spinning them, and passing them on to the next generation.

Transcending time, place and position

The feelings that many women have worn.

That pain, that inner strength, that gentleness

I want to wear it too.

　　Material：Clothing that was about to be discarded, fabrics such as hanten, waste materials.

　　Photography by YASUNARI KIKUMA / ©︎ FASHION FRONTIER PROGRAM 

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