REMIOjapan

( image from : http://www.liqun123.com/iga.html ) The History of Iga-yaki Iga-yaki is a pottery from Iga City, Mie Prefecture. Your first impression of Iga-yaki might be a little rustic or too plain, compared to other Japanese traditional pottery. However, you will sense and realize the beauty and charm of it throughout getting to know its history and features. It is considered that Iga-yaki was started about 1300 years ago. The age was called Nara Period (ca. 701-794) in Japan, and a traditional pottery called Sueki had been baked a lot. In the early stages of Iga-yaki, it was baked only for an agriculture use, such as simple pots storing seeds, and […]

(img from : http://www.syokuninkai.com/products/list.php?category_id=68 ) When you go to a special party, what will you wear? One of recommendations should be, of course, kimono, which will attract other guests for the gorgeousness. However, you may think the patterns of kimono are too conspicuous to wear, especially if you are a novice of kimono. It certainly needs some courage to wear kimono at first. Is there not some kimono perfect to such people? Of course, yes. Let’s try Tokyo somé-komon. What is Tokyo somé-komon? It is a method to damask fabric with pattern paper. It is also called  “Edo-komon” and it is better to think that Tokyo somé-komon is the official name […]

Introduction When it comes to talking about kimono, the history and variations, however, often seem to elude us: we tend to only talk about their appearance at first glance or about the rareness. For example, so few people (including Japanese people!) understand the difference between “Honba Oshima Tsumugi” and “Murayama Oshima Tsumugi”, both of which have very intricate and beautiful design and sleek texture. Well, this time, let’s put a spotlight on “Murayama Oshima Tsumugi”, famous and exquisite cloth of kimono. What is “Oshima Tsumugi”? As you have noticed, both of the cloth mentioned above has the same letters, “Oshima Tsumugi”, which indicates the cloth named “Oshima Tsumugi” has two […]

( image from : http://www.monsen.jp/onta/ ) History of Onta-yaki Onta-yaki is a Japanese pottery from Oita Prefecture. The beauty of Onta-yaki is its simple yet fine design, and you get a warm feeling as soon as you touch or hold the pottery. The reason why people attach to Onta-yaki is because Onta-yaki is designed to suit people’s daily life as a folk handicraft and makes them feel a sense of closeness. In other words, it is designed to be a tool for people not to be a work of art. A village that Onta-yaki is baked is located the northern part of Oita Prefecture. The village is also called as Sarayama. […]

If one of your friends wears a yellow suit, you might well think that it is too flamboyant unless he or she is so glamorous an icon of fashion. However, if what they wear is yellow kimono, your friend must be attractive without doubt. So, what if the yellow kimono were even special one? Honba Kihachijo is such really special cloth of kimono. The “Ki” in “Kihachijo” means yellow, not energy; well, it is made by very energetic people, though. ( image from : http://www.online-kimono.jp/products/10806.html ) What is the yellow of Honba Kihachijo? The homeland of Honba Kihachijo lies 300 km of Tokyo; the island is named “Hachijo-jima”. There are abundant […]

( image from : https://www.kaitori-kimono.biz/topics/20140404kimono-new.html ) Many conservative people insist that a suit should be the best wearing to go to their business appointment and also expect others to follow “suit”. However, more and more people are becoming fond of expressing themselves through their fashion and the way they are, and what to wear the day is their most important issue for them. If you are one of such fashionable people but watched carefully by conservative business partners, one of your options is wear Tama-ori. What’s Tama-ori? Tama-ori is one of traditional manufacturing of fabrics in Japan, mainly practiced in Hachioji, Tokyo. You may well think, “Traditional manufacturing of fabrics in […]

The History of Naraoka-yaki Naraoka-yaki is pottery from Daisen City, Akita Prefecture, and it has about 140 years of history. Naraoka-yaki is famous for its stunning deep blue glaze. It is considered that Naraoka-yaki originated in 1863. This is the year that Seiji Komatsu, a member of a local old family, learned techniques from potters of Arima-yaki and started to bake Naraoka-yaki. Daisen region has clay for pottery, but the clay is far from perfect and ideal clay for pottery. Due to the nature of the clay, pottery gets cracks easily when it get dry, and pottery also changes its shape during a firing process. There were more kilns before, […]

( image from : http://nibutani.jp/artisan/a_hiramura.html )   1. The “Attus (アットゥシ)” The “Attus” are traditional clothes of Ainu people（アイヌ民族）. Ainu are the people or ethnic groups that has been living in the north Island near Japanese main land, Hokkaido（北海道）, Kurile（千島列島） and Sakhalin Islands（樺太島）. Their hunting and gathering ways of life have gotten many scholarly attentions in many academic fields for long period of time. Winter time, those regions become incredibly cold. The snow start covering the land from November and the severe blizzard blows, Ainu have been long facing those vast snowy fields. Ainu have been wearing Attus clothes for long time. But not like the past centuries, those traditional Attus […]

( image from : http://yunokuni.jp/mori/craft/kutani.php ) The History of Kutani-yaki Kutani-yaki is one of the most famous Japanese porcelain, and it is also known to the world with the name Japan Kutani. It is considered that the first Kutani-yaki was baked in the early Edo period, 1655. Toshiharu Maeda, the then feudal lord of present Ishikawa Prefecture, directed his attention to rocks from a mine of him and gave Saijiro Goto orders to acquire ceramics techniques in Hizen Arita (the Arita-yaki producing district). The first kiln was located in Kutani region. In 1700, however, all of sudden the kiln closed down. The causes or reasons are still not determined. This is […]