An informal presentation on the work and life of Yoshiko Jinzenji, who is the foremost contemporary quilt artist in Japan and a natural dyer focused on distinctive bamboo coloring from Bali. Her tour-de-force quilt work from 1980 to 2000 chronicles fabric from the renowned textile designer, the late Junichi Arai. She is also well known for the nature-inspired textile making in her Bali studio, which she kept for 25 years working with local artisans. She is a connoisseur of traditional arts and crafts of Japan and China: calligraphy, tea ceremony, cuisine, and incense. She will stage the modern tea ceremony she developed in collaboration with artists and artisans from Asia.

Inspired by his research for upcoming exhibition at Museo Textil de Oaxaca, Gao Yu examined Han characters incorporated into textile designs by minority peoples in China. Most Chinese ethnic groups have no written language so their designs carry cultural stories and beliefs that enrich their lives with colors and patterns. After looking through his family’s collection of Chinese minority textiles, he found that ethnic groups from different regions have adopted the Han characters in distinctive ways. Some convey the original meanings of the characters and others incorporate them as motifs in their traditional design systems. Gao Yu described this rich cultural background and discussed the political and social factors that have influenced the emergence of ethnic-minority motifs within Han-majority China. In the second part of his talk, Gao Yu will introduced a sample of lesser-known indigo-dyed work clothes worn daily by the Han community of Zhejiang Province during the early half of the 1900s.