Keijo Tapanainen, an artist member of Propeller Gallery, a prominent collective gallery on Queen Street where the action is, called last week to say he has rounded up 12 artist members who’d like to show work for the Summit. Strange as it seems to us who have been so focused on Japanese paper for over 25 years in Toronto, many of them have never used washi before. Seven came in today for a briefing and left half dazed, half inspired by looking at the varied work of other artists who have persevered with washi over the years.

A sample of encaustic monoprint by Milt Jewell. Image links to enlarged photo.

In that group were an encaustic painter, cyanotype printer, oil painter, Chinese calligrapher, watercolourist, drawer and industrial materials sculptor. All of them left with samples of washi to play with – some different weights and colours, but mostly with the deceptively plain-looking paper that holds such potential for creative types: kozo, and a little gampi. Exciting to see the possibility in their eyes and know that this will be the beginning of new and interesting paths for some.

Do you have digital paper?

A question we get a lot. Not our favourite because it is so hard to answer though the short answer is “Yes.” It’s such a BIG question and depends on so many expectations of the inquirer. Washi isn’t meant to compete with Epson paper, and truly if you want bright colour exactly as on the monitor, and perfectly clean crisp edges, why not use what is made for that purpose? But we have seen beautiful digital prints on toned gampi and fibrous kozo that speak on other levels – of quiet, of softness, of agelessness, of inner beauty and strength. So we are thrilled that Marilyn Lightstone has hung in there, after asking the question herself, to come up with some serenely energetic contemporary “scrolls” which combine her painting and her stunning photographs in digital print on gampi. Have a peek:

Detail of Marilyn Lightstone’s “Bush”. Image links to enlarged photo.

Washi slippers anyone?

Sara Fradkin who we know from years ago when she worked wonders with Japanese papers in over-the-top hats for our store window has re-surfaced and will offer a workshop at the Bata Shoe Museum on June 8. If you are coming to the Summit, or to Toronto anytime, you have to visit this specialized gem of a museum. “Wearable Washi Slippers” will be the title and she’ll put students through their paces to produce long-wearing, individually embellished kozo slippers. She is a creative genius I think. Wouldn’t it be fun if one of our guest papermakers took the workshop??

Lennox Contemporary Gallery

John Petcoff who owns this nice big gallery which will show several artists’ work in June, is also the generous half owner of Oyster Boy – a restaurant (again, on Queen Street West) known by all oyster lovers far and wide. (Mark that on your list too!) He has a tiny theatre in his back space complete with theatre seats he scored at some point. We are dying to use this space. One night we will hold a salon for artists, “What IS it about washi?” so that washiphiles can share their discoveries (and frustrations). And at another theatre night there last week, he met a couple from a theatre company who specialize in paper. That made the wheels dance. Now we have to meet them and organize a washi theatre event. Seems impossible with the time that’s left, but you and I know that NOTHING is. This is what I mean about how exciting it all gets.

Funding

Did I mention that we had hoped for some corporate funding to realize this dream the way we really wanted, but it didn’t happen? Well what seems to be happening maybe because of this, is that people are engaged by it, that we are doing it anyway. Many of the interesting smaller businesses in town are taking ads in our brochure and offering support in many ways. The galleries couldn’t be more keen and helpful.
Gorgeous chiyogami, also known as yuzen, comes in thousands of pattern and colour variations.Volunteers like Judith Fielder are amazing. She came in today with a replica of the exhibition space at The Japan Foundation for her part of the “Washi Over Time” exhibit.

This will be a tour of Japanese stencil patterning and how it migrated from textile to paper, culminating with a wallful of chiyogami and katazome-shi delights from people we know around the world. Know anyone who has something really unique they’ve done with chiyogami? There is always room for more. Judith showed us today this perfect “game” she invented to help people see how Japanese patterns work so well when they are placed together. It’s brilliant. You’ll have to come and see it at the Japan Foundation which will open the last weekend in May for the Doors Open weekend but of course will be featured during the Summit.

We’ve just confirmed that Tatiana Ginsberg, as well as giving her lecture on the natural dyeing of washi in the villages of Japan, will also be teaching a day-long workshop on the subject. Since washi is more akin to textile in its ability to absorb colour intensely and its malleability, it often draws people with textile backgrounds. There will be beautiful stitched and dyed works using washi in the galleries, including work by 3 of our JPP staff.

Which brings us to the Washiwear fashion show at the Gladstone Hotel, happening on Monday June 9th. We have some special garments coated with konnyaku starch on the menu, but if you would like to take part in this event and have a piece of clothing, jewelry or an accessory that you have created using washi that you’d like to be seen, send us an image. Not only might you become the next Issey Miyake, but you would also be eligible for a $100.00 gift certificate towards your next purchase of washi if the item is modeled that night!

Reg Beatty’s latest work. Image links to enlarged photo.

Here is a sneak preview of the latest innovation by book artist Reg Beatty. He is layering plaster and acrylic on seichosen kozo to create a “canvas” that he can then draw on and then use in the creation of a book. Love it! when an artist uses a myriad of qualities of the paper in one fell swoop. Reg is the King of beauty, form and function in books. He’ll be teaching 2 workshops and exhibiting at the New Work by Washi Veterans exhibit here at The Japanese Paper Place.

Visitors from Japan

Without Paul Denhoed and Maki Yamashita,there would have been no application to The Japan Foundation to pay for the airfares. Such an application requires hours of work (in Japanese) and efforts to coordinate on the Japan side. Without that big chunk of costs covered, there would have been no papermakers here for the Summit and very likely no Summit. We are grateful to them for their help and for their guiding-services-to-be in June.

Paul comes from Toronto, but received his MFA in papermaking at the U. of Iowa some years ago where his interest in Japanese paper ran deep. During further study in the papermaking villages of Japan, he met Maki who shared his interest in paper through her printmaking and bookbinding. Now they share a life!

Hiroaki Imai tending his kozo field. Image links to enlarged photo.

Paul often helps Imai-san tend the kozo field (left) or do other jobs where an extra hand is appreciated. This relationship has allowed Paul a respectful glimpse at a papermaker’s life. You can see and hear more about this if you attend Paul’s lecture at The Japan Foundation on June 12th.

Hiroaki Imai laying out kozo to bleach in the snow. Image links to enlarged photo.

This studio is in snow country where they can “bleach” the fibres by laying them out on the snow (right) and often store the wet papers in a deep hole in the snow until the sunny warm weather comes for drying them. Imai-san’s beautiful kozo paper will be transformed by several artists who will show their work at the Summit.

Recently emailing from Niigata, Paul recounted this charming anecdote:

Imai-san’s middle daughter, 4-year old Ricoh-chan is currently on an “English kick.” She says she wants to be an English teacher when she grows up! All three of his daughters are learning English at a local English school, and I help them out a little when I am here.

When it was decided that he would be going to Toronto, Imai-san joked to Ri-chan “I don’t understand any English, so you’re going to have to go with me as my translator!” She replied “OK!” Everybody laughed, but a few days later they found out that she had been telling all her friends at school “I’m going to Canada to translate for my papa!”

Kurotani: the village with the oldest continuing papermaking tradition in Japan. Image links to enlarged photo.

As well as Imai-san from Niigata, we have invited Shinji Hayashi from Kurotani (right), the oldest continuing papermaking village in Japan, and Hiroshi Tamura from Kochi. All make top-quality traditional washi and you’ll see more about them and their papers later.

Somehow I have to rein in my excitement about the World Washi Summit. And so I’ve decided to write a 3-month blog leading up to the event. This will make everyone around me happy as they too can tune in without having to listen to the gasps, sighs, whoopees and incessant play-by-plays as it all unfolds. This Summit, after a year’s planning, has me so engaged, so energized, so waking up at night with ideas (and questions), and so blown away by the interest of so many that I have to write it down, and share with whoever will listen the evolution of the project.

Japanese papermaker Akari Osaki and Inuit artist Kavavaow Mannomee share a moment at Cape Dorset.

For example, on Friday an email from Pat at Feheley Fine Art, Toronto’s prominent gallery for Inuit art, arrived. They agreed some time ago to be a host gallery, showing work on washi during the Summit. The excellent news was that she had managed to get funding to bring the talented Inuit printmaker Kavavaow Mannomee to Toronto for that week. At the Feheley gallery he will demonstrate the techniques of this unique medium brought to Canada’s Arctic about 60 years ago. Not just that, but he’ll be able to see what other artists around the world are doing with washi as he visits other galleries. Perhaps he, like other artists attending, will be inspired to work with new ideas or techniques.

Now, we need to find a way to also bring down the lively Jimmy Manning, the printshop manager at Cape Dorset who can translate from Inuktitut for Kavavow. He has been our paper contact for 20 years in Nunavut. I have a few ideas to explore this week around that.

Also on Friday, an email confirmed that Barbara Bunke, author, designer, and owner of Ljunggrens in Stockholm, voted the best paper store in Europe, would come and teach a workshop on stamp carving and printing on washi and take part in the Washi Bazaar at the Gladstone Hotel.

Sigrid Blohm, my wonderful right hand in this plan, arrived at work on Friday with glowing reports of prints she had seen the night before at an opening at Open Studio by Emma Nishimura, lithography on gampi tissue. The upper half of the prints were crumpled, giving a lustrous relief texture to the horizon while the lower imagery remained flat and sleek. Immediately we began to think where this work too could be shown in June. Emma is young, but clearly “gets” the special qualities of gampi and uses them to intensify her creative voice. Just the kind of work we want others to see.

On Friday too, the phrase, a “Washi Tea Party” was coined by Open Studio, to describe the hour-long visit that the 3 Japanese papermakers will make to this renowned printmaking co-op. During this time, the makers will meet some of the many printmakers who belong to the studio, see the exhibition of linocuts by Lisa Levitt, works on washi by other artists and watch whatever printmaking is happening in the studio that afternoon. It is this kind of face-to-face meeting across the cultures that holds such potential for mutual inspiration and for truly making a difference.

In 2004, with the help of our long-time and valuable supplier, the Moriki family, we brought over the Osaki family, 3 generations of papermakers working together. Takao Moriki just sent over the current issue of Universal Design, a glossy impressive Japanese magazine devoted to handcrafts. In this issue an article on the Osakis says the following of their young (now 27) daughter Akari:

Akari had always had in mind that she wanted to get away and work outside the village back then, but meeting a Canadian woman Nancy Jacobi-san has made her confident and proud of what she and her family had been doing.

What an unexpected thrill to read this – our hope of course, never quite articulated, in this kind of project, magnified many times by the larger scale of the World Washi Summit.

So that was one day in the life of the preparations for the Summit.

Next, may I introduce the pair in Japan who have been working hard across the Pacific, to apply (successfully!) to the Japan Foundation for funding of the airfare to make the project possible. Paul Denhoed and his wife Maki Yamashita are the liaisons with the 3 selected papermakers and we’ll tell you more about them all in the next segment.