ARIMATSU SHIBORI MATSURI (Arimatsu Shibori Festival) took place on June 4th and 5th this year. Since I was already in Gifu, I decided to go and see.
I arrived at 5am!!! and went to Arimatsu jinja. There, even the flags were shibori! It was a long day, but every encounter with shibori was delightful~
There were the old ladies doing demonstrations. I learned that they each have one technique they are masters of. They do this one and only technique for most of their lives! There were many ladies wearing hand-dyed kimonos, which was really pretty to see.
I was surprised to see the many colors, not only ai, indigo, but many different colors. You could definitely witness the struggle to keep the shibori tradition going, with the times changing. New artists were showing innovative items, like shibori leather bags, or shoes. There were also demonstrations by the younger generation of shibori ladies, even one man I think.
And the many people who came wearing kimonos or hand-dyed clothes, mostly blue and white.
We bumped into a shibori kimono collector, who so nicely showed us his collection, and into Wadasan, who lives in America.
Those two days of the year, shibori is on stage, with everyone paying attention to it. All sorts of vocabulary I had learned so far finally became part of me as I saw times and times again various shibori techniques being demonstrated or exhibited.
thank you Arimatsu~
