kinunomai

Ashigara embroidery

Kikuaki Ueda Work collection

"Kinu no Mai"

This work collection has been chosen from 40 masterpieces from his long activities(25years) This is the first work collection.

A4・48pages(40 masterpieces)
price:$25.00 (plus shipping cost)

You can buy this in the Hirai bookstore in Odawara City.

kinu no mai buynow
Mr.Kikuaki Ueda

Ashigara embroidery Kikuaki Ueda 1

Thread is a creature. It is breathing. Therefore, it is possible to make something by talking to threads.

It is not work which is asked for, or profitable work either.
Even as the drive to continue lessens, he takes his time and continues to make. When I heard this, I imagined how strict a person has to be, but the Ashigara embroidery artist
Ueda Kikuaki always greets people kindly with a smiling face.
He doesn’t make people feel fearful even though he has endured difficulties.
However, when beginning to speak, his words are always filled with confidence.

━ How was your childhood?
At the time of my childhood we had a family business embroidering.
I was doing the work of collecting , I was 5 or 6 years old.
The Nanjin war started at that time, soldiers left for war, and for me the world was a flag procession at the time of the Nanjin surrender. There was a lot of work for embroidery, to export to foreign countries.
━ In tose days, hwas there a division of labor in the embroidery industry?
Yes.
At that time embroidery was the industry which prospered around here.
There were 2000 to 3000 workers.
Odawara had 5 or 6 wholesalers.
They employed people who dyed thread, people who carved the pictures, collecting and delivering people and of course many embroiders working in the factories giving sideline business to the surrounding farm and fishing villages.
━ How was the embroidery around the Meiji era?
This story I have heard from my parents
In the old days, Yamato souvenir put embroidery on the back of the Kimono at the harbor in Yokohama and sold them.
They sold fairly well and souvenir stores called "Souvenir" were started along many wagonways,
then gradually they started to be exported.

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These are the people who supported this Aori project.

[Print cooperation] Bunkado print Co.Ltd. [Transration cooperation] Kidsman English / Yuji Koma,Shane Pole

[Odawara City] KAGOSEI Co.Ltd / Hirai Bookstore Co.Ltd / Takahashi construction Co.Ltd / izumi jewery Shimano / cut salon e-hair / space experiment atelier FACTORY[Minami Ashigara]Pixera Co.Ltd [Kaisei Town]Osakana Shokubou Wahanaza [Manazuru Town] Junksnet [Ninomiya Town]Kojima dental clinic white essence Ninomiya branch [Yokohama City]Medicare.Co.Ltd.