Interviews (Yoshiko Jinzenji )

Yoshiko Jinzenji
Yoshiko Jinzenji is an internationally known weaver, dyer, fabric artist, teacher, and quilter. Her work has been exhibited around the world, including the Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival, Tokyo, the American Quilters Society Quilt Show, Paducah, KY as well as a special exhibition in Jakarta under the auspices of the Ministry of Industry of Indonesia. Her work is to be included in the permanent collection of the New York Craft Museum.

She graduated from Kyoto Women’s University in 1965. She first encountered quilting when she was living in Toronto thirty years ago. In 1991, she started Grass House Studio in Bali, Indonesia in order to further research natural dying techniques. She has also collaborated with textile designer Juni’ichi Arai in her work using synthetic materials. She is the author of several books in including Quilt Artistry (2002, English) and Quilt Quest (2000). A Japanese national, she speaks English.

Interview: July 4, 2003

What was the main inspiration behind writing your most recent book, Quilt Artistry?
I wanted to write about my thirty year quilting journey in English. I had published several books in Japanese, but because they weren’t in English, it’s hard to start a dialogue with people in the US and Europe. Therefore I really wanted to publish a book in English.

You write that your first encounter with quilting was Mennonite quilts over 30 years ago in Toronto. What attracted you to the quilts?
My first experience with quilts was when I lived in North America from the 1960s and to early 70s. Japan was yet to be fully industrialized then, but there it was at its peak. Within that context, I was really moved by the fact that things made by hand still existed in North America.

What attracts you to quilting now?
Even now that feeling hasn’t really changed. I think that within human beings is the amazing ability to be creative using the most modern technological and industrial processes, as well as by hand. They are both polar opposites, and unless you balance them both, you can’t grow as an artist.

What influences your quilting?
Influence—hmmm. I think the main influence is the essence of the paths that my life took. For some reason, people really need to deeply contemplate something in order for their character to develop. In my life, quilting was something in my everyday life and it became one of the subjects that I studied.

As for myself, I liked working with my hands, I liked beautiful things, and I liked cloth -- I was attracted to quilting from a number of different perspectives.

You mention various forms of folk arts ranging from Balinese palm objects to Amish quilting. I was wondering if there were other forms of art that inspired you that you didn’t mention in your book?
I find inspiration from many things—ceramics, for example. Almost everything around me inspires me. Thus, the objects and art in my book are only a miniscule proportion.

Could you tell a bit more about Grass House Studio on Bali? Why did you build a studio there?
At the very beginning was the notion that I wanted study more on the arts of Asia. My father-in-law was professor of arts in Indonesia so I had the chance to meet with Indonesian students. I think that was a major influence.

When I visited Bali—my first time in Indonesia—I was drawn to their dyed and woven products. I wanted to study more of those techniques, and as I had been interested in antique Amish quilts, I became fascinated with their dying processes that used natural ingredients.

As for natural dying ingredients, the dye stuff is one of the most intense in the world as they are from right by the equator. Every time I traveled there, I became aware that there was much to investigate. I wanted to deepen my understanding of these things so I started the studio in Bali.

You live and work in two places—Kyoto and Bali. Kyoto is easily the cultural capital of Japan and Bali is pretty much a natural paradise. You mention in your book that the quilts you made in Bali did not look right in Kyoto. What are the similarities and differences of living and working in Kyoto and Bali?
You can receive many things from living in Bali and I was strongly influenced by the “Balinese” world. However, the thoughts and ideas that made sense in the Balinese environment. . .if you suddenly bring those to Kyoto, they don’t work. One is an island culture by the equator and Kyoto culture, which is another spectacular culture, developed in a completely different environment.

One of the things I gradually learned as I was working in a culture by the equator is that I am Japanese, with Japanese DNA unique to myself flowing through me, and the Balinese possess different DNA. I realized that there is strength in thinning out the things I don’t agree with.

You have traveled all over the world with your quilts. I think it’s safe to say the aesthetic vocabulary of each country is quite different. Do you think that people in the West react differently to your work?
This year, I went to North American from April to May, and for the first time, I took my quilts with me. I was able to take a good hard look around. In the end, I came to understand that because the environment and natural features are different, the way things look-- and that’s not just quilting-- within in its own environment is a beautiful thing.

Therefore, the culture and religion that was born and developed in that environment are the thoughts of that people, so those over there might look at my quilts and naturally think that they don’t like these kinds of quilts. But, for me, these quilts are a creation from Asia, and I made them the way I thought they should be. But its not it’s really a comparison, and I don’t make quilts so that they are accepted: it’s just that they are fundamentally different.

I think one of the more interesting things about your quilts that they look very organic on the surface. However you use a variety of materials from black lacquered silk to rubber to paper to synthetics. Unlike quilting “purists” (who use cotton fabrics and cotton threads) you use an amazing array of synthetics and machine sewing. What made you branch from the more traditional forms of quilting to synthetics and machine sewing?
The idea of using cotton fabric, cotton thread, and sewing by hand has been a constant that existed for over three hundred years in American quilting aesthetics. Adding to that much history is something that is difficult to do.

And there is the idea that you should capture the present. Is the modern [quilt] of North American made only from cotton fabric and worked only by hand? There are so many new textiles made of materials and technology that really capture the modern era. When I look at those fabrics, I don’t want to think, “well I can’t use these in quilting and I can only use American cottons.” I didn’t even want to contemplate being so limited!”

So I used the materials that surrounded me. I thought about how to use them in a quilt and how they would be re-born in a new creation.

Could you tell us a bit more with your work with textile designer Jun’ichiro Arai?
In the late 1970s and 80s, he made textiles for famous fashion designers such as Issey Miyake, Yoji Yamamoto, and Rei Kawakubo. He was working with really talented, -looking, textile oriented designers. When you look the textiles, it’s not hidden behind the fashion. You can’t help but wonder why the fashion is so amazing—it was because the textile and design worked together. I was so moved by his fabrics.

I met Jun’ichiro Arai for the first time at a department store in Osaka where he was having an exhibition. That was 1984—it’s been almost twenty years since I met him. He has since been a source of inspiration and I’ve learned a lot.

Do you have a favorite quilt or quilt series from among your work?
It’s quite a ways back, about fifteen years ago, I used Jun’ichiro Arai’s fabric to create Versification 2—which uses a spiral [Log Cabin-like] block to capture the flow of the textile itself. I think that one has a special place in my memory.

More recently, bamboo-dyed white. . .As I am an Asian, I call it Asian white. I like this series of work as I wanted to use the Asian white as a base and explore the natural world by adding other naturally dyed fabrics and colors.

What are you working on now?
Now I am using bamboo dyed fabric as a base and combining it with gold and black. Of late, I’ve been experimenting with codes (ango)—Code quilts. Using codes, I’ve trying to capture Japanese classics in my quilts. By classics, I mean pieces of literature with a philosophy and meaning—such as the Tale of Heike or Hojoki [a series of writings by Kamo no Chomei]—that capture the core of our Buddhist cultural background. I am interested in making quilts in which the classics are written into the quilts in code.

Are there any quilters whose work you like?
In the US, I can think of several innovative quilters whose use of fabric I admire.

How about Japanese quilters?
As for myself, I don’t really know the Japanese quilting world so I find it difficult to answer this question.

What brings you joy?
Accomplishing what I set out to do.

What do you think are the best books on quilting or fabric art?
As for quilting books, I can’t think of anything in particular although I do look at many books. I generally don’t read “quilt books”—rather I look at books on antiquities and classics. I try to avoid books that focus too narrowly on that world.