Itchiku
Kubota's fascination with an ancient textile art
The Japanese master has
devoted his life to reviving a long-lost
technique of fabric design and to
creating handcraftedkimonos of lyrical and
lasting beauty
 If Japanese artist Itchiku Kubota has
his way, he will live to be 120. That's how long
the 78-year-old textile master estimates it
will take him to complete his life's work--a
series of 75 elaborately handcrafted kimonos,
which, when hung side by side, will form a
panoramic tapestry celebrating the four seasons
and the cosmos. Kubota, a renowned craftsman and
painter, considers this series,
entitled "Symphony of Light," to be his
masterpiece.
 Thirty of the finished works, tracing
the transition from autumn to winter, are
currently on display
at the National Museum of Natural History.
"Landscape Kimonos by Itchiku Kubota"
also features 15 other kimonos inspired by
motifs, such as a burning sun, that reflect the
artist's reverence for nature. The exhibit, on
view through April 14, 1996, was made possible by
the Nippon Foundation (formerly the Sasakawa
Foundation).
 Born in Toyko in 1917, Kubota began
studying yuzen (rice-paste resist) dyeing
at age 14. Six years later, he stumbled upon a
fragment of elegantly patterned cloth in the
Tokyo National Museum. "Trembling in the
face of such mastery and refinement of
beauty," he relates, he stood transfixed for
three hours. "In a sudden moment, I
encountered a source of boundless creativity
which revealed to me my calling."
More than 350 years old, the
remnant was a rare example of the lost art of tsujigahana,
a complex method of tie-dyeing embellished with
intricate embroidery, elaborate brush painting, sumi
ink drawing and gold-leaf application. The
technique, often referred to as "illusionary
dyeing," flourished in Japan during the 14th
to 16th centuries.
 Over the years, Kubota's fascination
with tsujigahana grew. After his release
in 1951 from a Siberian prisoner-of-war camp, he
decided to devote himself to creating a modified
version of the lost art--a goal that consumed 20
years. He has since won international acclaim for
his unconventional designs, distinctive use of
color and unwavering dedication to an
extraordinarily laborious craft.
The juxtaposed kimonos of the
"Symphony of Light" series compose a
continuous mountain landscape that pans
poetically through the purple shades of evening,
the mauve starkness of a sudden snow and the
golden shafts of autumn's last light. "I
cannot die in peace until I have finished the
series to which I have devoted my life,"
insists Kubota. "While envisioning a
panorama of 75 works, I am but a traveler
wandering on a path in search of more depth to my
dye-colors."
By Diane M. Bolz
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