Presentations of Two Youngsters from Kyoto Awed Me — 1 — The week in Seattle has indeed become in their words, a life-changing experience for the two TASK students from Kyoto, Japan. I’m relieved and happy to hear that. The daily snapshots of their visit appear on the TASK website. My highlight was the presentations they conducted at Seattle University on…

Day 14 of 30-Day Writing Challenge I’m trying to minimize the purchase of my clothes. I still wear a T-shirt that I bought when I went to Grand Canyon for the first and only time 32 years ago. I’ve been wearing the same jeans for over 15 years. They were brand new when I bought them…

Continuing my Life ver.2.0 — Hi, I’m Akemi Sagawa. Nice to meet you! My Life version 1.0 I was born and grew up in Japan, and moved to the US in August of 1994. Remember a product called Microsoft Windows 95? I was transferred from Japan to Seattle to be part of the product launch group for the Asian…

We Love Kimono Project 11 — Finally, the whole process of Yuzen 友禅 kimono dyeing process was complete. Now time to sew both the kimono and the obi. Mamiya-san, my kimono retailer, said that ideally I should see the final status of the kimono and obi fabric before they were sewn respectively. He also told me…

We Love Kimono Project 10 — The dyeing process is over, but the Yuzen 友禅 process is not complete yet, said Mamiya-san, my kimono retailer. What else is there, you may wonder. So did I. According to Kosaka-san, the kimono maker, there are two more processes. One is Kinsai 金彩, and the other is Shishu 刺繍. …

We Love Kimono Project 9 — The Process of Dyeing a Kimono Jizome 地染, the process of dyeing the kimono fabric with the base color, is complete. The Fuse-nori 伏糊, the paste applied onto the designs to resist the base color to penetrate the fabric, has been washed away. The Itome 糸目, the finely drawn design, is still intact on the fabric…

We Love Kimono Project 8 — Fuse-nori 伏糊: Covering with paste Once the Itome-oki 糸目置 is complete, the craftsman moves on to the process called fuse-nori 伏糊.

Cruel Truth of Nature — Jorge is a male cat of my neighbor. He is a survivor. He used to be an explorer. For days, he would not come home. Turned out he had a few other families to visit and get fed from. Jorge had a little sister cat, Marley. In contrast to Jorge…

We Love Kimono Project 7 — With the Medashi of my Obi complete, Kosaka-san, the kimono maker using Tegaki Yuzen, a hand-dyeing method, started his work of making my kimono. Tegaki Yuzen 手描き友禅 is a resist-dyeing technique that became fashionable at the end of the seventeenth century in Japan. Applying paste dye directly to fabric to…