Category: Art & Artists

John Marshall: Works in Fabric, ii

My first contact with John Marshall came about when I discovered his book Make Your Own Japanese Clothes.

For anyone interested in traditional Japanese fabrics and clothing, this book is an incredible resource of information.  You learn how to construct Japanese clothing using traditional fabrics (which measure 13-14 inches wide), and how to sew them using traditional hand-sewing techniques.  Of course, you can also sew them by machine, but that just isn’t the same!

Garment construction is given for kimono, haori, hanten, various tops, vests, pants, obi, and tabi.  Not only do you learn how to make these, you also learn about the construction of sleeves, hems, collars, and the use of lining and padding.  All of these, combined with illustrations and photographs, give window to both traditional clothing, and a window into creating your own clothing with a modern cast.

I made the hanten, hand-stitched using traditional kasuri, and totally enjoyed the process.


John Marshall: Works in Fabric, i

John Marshall, of Covelo, California, is an incredible fabric artist who designs clothing using the traditional Japanese katazome and tsutsugaki techniques to color the fabrics he uses in clothing he designs and sews himself.

A bit about John, from his website:

John Marshall is an internationally known textile artist working with techniques of paste resist dyeing. He produces a wide range of sophisticated and colorful designs, many of which show the influence of his years of study in the Orient.

John grew up in the small town of Florin, just outside of Sacramento, California. Before wartime evacuations, Florin had been one of the largest Japanese-American communities in the United States; after the war many returned to reclaim lost years and property. These are the friends and neighbors John and his five brothers and sisters grew up among.

John’s Godmother, the late Mary Tsukamoto, was a great influence in his life: teaching him to read and write the Japanese language and sharing with him her great love of her cultural heritage.

At the age of seventeen, having worked and saved toward his goal for many years, John was off on his own to discover Japan. His eagerness to learn secured him private instruction under a variety of specialists in doll making, centered around the Yamato style. John was intent on studying the many facets of these shell-faced dolls, such as carving, weaving, dyeing, and sewing, to name just a few. His knowledge of the Japanese language proved to be of great benefit in understanding the subtleties of the culture.

The internationally published paper artist, Kunio Ekiguchi, took John under his wing and saw to it that he received the proper introductions so necessary in Japan. Mr. Ekiguchi arranged an apprenticeship for John with the late Matsuyo Hayashi, a master dyer in the bingata style of paste resist. Through her insight and careful instruction, John became truly fascinated with this ancient art form. Mme. Hayashi had long dreamed of sowing the seeds of her art abroad. Upon her death, John discovered she had willed much of her lifetime collection of work, supplies and equipment to him. John was determined to fulfill her wishes by bringing her techniques to the West.

Continuing his research into ancient cultures and dye techniques, John aims to interpret the sensibilities and aesthetics of the ancient and ethnic world through the Japanese paste resist process, using the actual plants and insects employed in making the original dyes. John’s research so far has taken him to Japan, Thailand, Italy, Indonesia, and the Yucatan. Through the generosity of collectors, he has had the opportunity to view first hand a wide range of ancient and ethnic textiles and artifacts which have served to influence his fabric designs.

Today John is in the midst of renovating an old flour mill in the Old West town of Covelo, nestled in the remote mountains of Mendocino County of Northern California. A generous 12,000 square feet, the new studio is used to display the full range of his work intermixed with art pieces collected at home and abroad. Situated on an acre of land complimented with over 300 wisteria vines gracefully covering a redwood arbor, this sun-filled space is also used to host lectures and as a classroom for teaching a wide range of Japanese crafts: dyeing, bookbinding, doll making, paper crafts, sewing, color theory and production, and textile history.

John has also taught programs for the past twenty five years for a wide range of institutions including a number of years at the Pacific Basin School of Textile Arts in Berkeley, and through UC Berkeley Extension Services, as well as lecturing extensively to large groups through museums, guilds, embassies, and universities internationally. He is currently working on a project to teach his design concepts to Japanese students of kimono design in Tokyo.

Specializing in one-of-a-kind works of art, John takes on commissions and new challenges. He produces primarily large interior hangings and luxurious clothing. All of John’s work is designed, dyed, and constructed for actual use. All hues are colorfast to repeated washings and to light. Personally executing all stages going into the creation of each piece is one of his great joys.

John Marshall’s work is collected internationally. He has done commission work with traditional kimono in Japan and also produces pieces for stockbrokers, professors, art collectors, and many international figures including European royalty. He travels regularly, showing to his private clients throughout North America and Asia. His work was also carried by leading galleries throughout North America.

John is writing a series of instructional books. The first was published by Kodansha International, 1988, on the subject of Japanese sewing techniques and design concepts for use in the western world. The title is Make Your Own Japanese Clothes: Patterns and Ideas for Modern Wear. This will be followed by a number of other books, including one on his unique dye techniques. His video, Japanese Textile Dyeing: Introduction to Paste-Resist Techniques, released through A/zo Productions, covers the basics of using natural dyes with Japanese Paste resist methods.

John is eager to share information and ideas, with the hope of helping the seedlings of Japanese dyeing and crafts to grow and enrich all our lives.

I have had the privilege to take dyeing and katazome classes from John, and appreciate his warm, friendly personality and the structure and organization of his workshops and classes.  I hope to continue learning from John in the future.


Hirokazu Kosaka

Hirokazu Kosaka made a series of four videos, all of which are readily available on the different video services.  These videos are particularly interesting to me because of their content:  the Japanese brush, and calligraphy.  

A brief biography of Kosaka can be found at the Montalvo Arts Center, which has this to say about him:

Born in Wakayama, Japan in 1948, Hirokazu Kosaka now lives and works in Los Angeles, where he serves as Visual Arts Director at the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center. As a student at the Chouinard Art Institute, where he graduated with a BFA in painting in 1970, Kosaka began to explore the art of performance, looking toward artists such as Wolfgang Stoerchle, Allen Ruppersberg, William Leavitt and Chris Burden for inspiration. As a young artist, Kosaka also began to incorporate Eastern traditions in his art, drawing from his appreciation of the centuries-old traditions of Noh drama and Kabuki theater, his knowledge of the ground-breaking experimental art of Japan’s Gutai Group in the mid-1960s, as well as his own experience with Buddhist chanting and Zen archery.

Today, Kosaka is known for his large-scale, performative pieces, which often use publicly accessible space as a platform for dance, performance, and visual art practice. Kosaka’s work has been seen and performed at venues including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the Japanese American Theatre, Los Angeles; the J. Paul Getty Center; the Seattle Art Museum; and the Indianapolis Art Museum. Selected grants and awards include a Creative Capital grant, a Rockefeller Foundation grant,  a California Arts grant, and a Los Angeles Endowment for the Arts grant.

In 1973, Kosaka returned to Japan where he completed a three-month long performance piece called “Soleares” and later embarked upon a traditional 1,000-mile Zen pilgrimage called “The 88 Temples.” After completing this spiritual journey, Kosaka remained at a Buddhist monastery and was ordained as a Shigon Buddhist priest. He later returned to Los Angeles where he began to create large-scale, process-oriented artworks infused with the teachings he learned as a priest.

The Alliance for California Traditional Arts writes this about him:

Dating back to the 11th century, Japanese Kyudo – or archery, literally meaning “way of the bow” – has been used as an art of purification in ceremonies within the Imperial Court of Japan and within Zen Buddhism. Practitioners of this ceremonial and contemplative form focus on attaining “the perfect shot.” In order to accomplish the perfect shot, one must have immediate action without any intervening thoughts; this entails proper form, physique, patience, and dedication.

Reverend Hirokazu Kosaka can trace Kyudo in his family’s lineage back multiple generations, and often responds “300 years” when asked how long he has studied the art. His father began teaching Kosaka when he was 10 years old, just as his grandfather taught Kosaka’s father, as was done in previous generations. Kosaka says, “My art, and therefore my life, is the result of centuries of ‘spiritual mutation,’ the manifestation of my experience with Kyudo.”

In 2009, Hirokazu participated in ACTA’s Apprenticeship Program with apprentice Ferris Smith. The apprenticeship deepened Ferris’ training in form, patience, and the historical pursuit and endless search for the perfect shot.

Interestingly, Kosaka does not seem to have a personal web page, and so in a way he becomes an elusive figure.  Searching for him on Google, it becomes clear that this is a man who is creative in ways not traditionally recognized, and his art is experiential to a great degree.  It makes the search for the evanescent tangible, and should one find a scheduled event, it may be worth the enquiry.  I certainly am curious.

Shozo Sato: Renaissance Man

Every now and again, someone in the public will catch your eye because of your interests.  Shozo Sato is one of those individuals who has come into my life over the years.  I have never met him, but as an individual, his range of accomplishments in traditional Japanese arts never ceases to intrigue me.

In 1965 he wrote a book about Ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arranging, and since then this book has been reprinted in various formats.  He is an accomplished calligrapher, and has written a book about sumi-e.  Cha no yu, the Japanese Tea Ceremony, is another of his accomplishments.  Most recently, he has brought the Kabuki theater to the U.S., and produced MacBeth, Medea in the Kabuki tradition; you may see more about this here at http://www.ket.org, and a review here.  He has also produced Othello at the University of Illinois.  I would love to see Shakespeare in Kabuki!

Shozo Sato is Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois and currently teaches at Northwestern University, and at the Japan House, which is located at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and part of the College of Fine and Applied Arts.

In my opinion, Mr. Sato is a living treasure and an artist who enriches all of us through his creativity and dynamic sharing of his knowledge.