Visions in Silk

Dr Clare Pollard is Curator of Japanese Art at the Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford. She previously worked as curator at the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin and the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney. Her research has focused mainly on ceramics and textiles of the Meiji era and she is co-author with Hiroko T. McDermott of Threads of Silk and Gold: Ornamental Textiles from Meiji Japan (2012). Threads of Silk and Gold was the first major exhibition of Meiji artistic textiles to be held in the UK. Luz van Overbeeke is a dealer, conservation manager, independent researcher and writer specialising in Japanese artistic textiles from the Meiji and Taisho eras. She is the owner of Gallery Talking Pieces, a gallery devoted to Japanese pictorial fine art textiles such as embroidery, yuzen cut-velvet, oshi-e and tsuzure-ori weaving of the late 19th- and early 20th-century. Dr Matsubara Fumi is Director of the Kitano Cultural Research Institute at the Kitano Tenmangu Shrine and previously worked as a research fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Japan and as a postdoctoral fellow at the Kiyomizu Sannenzaka Museum. She holds a doctorate in Meiji artistic textiles from Kyoto University and her book (Shishū no kindai: yushutsu shishū no nichiō kō­ryūshi, 2021) is a pioneering study of the modern Japanese export embroidery. Professor Hirota Takashi is a leading scholar on late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Japanese fine art textiles and a pioneer in the field. He has published extensively on the production of the Takashimaya Company. His latest book is Takeuchi Seiho and Takashimaya: The intersection of art and industry (Takeuchi Seiho to Takashimaya, 2024). He is professor emeritus at Kyoto Women’s University and has served as curator at both the Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art and the Kyoto Municipal University of Arts.

• Foreword by Professor Nasser D. Khalili, PhD, KCSS, KCFOFounder of the Khalili Collections1. Meiji 'Artistic Textiles' Explores the historical context for the development of Meiji fine art textiles, from the foundations of the sophisticated luxury textile industry of Kyoto to the extraordinary artistic dialogue between Japan and nations around the world. 2. Makers Introduces the key makers of Meiji artistic textiles, including the pioneering Tanaka Rishichi and top producers Nishimura Sozaemon (Chiso), Iida Shinshi (Takashimaya) and Kawashima Jinbei. Includes new information on lesser-known makers such as S. Nomura (Benten), Mitsui Gofukuten, Daimaruichi and Aoki Embroidery, as well as the students of newly established girls’ schools.3. Sources of InspirationLooks at the subjects of Meiji textiles and the artistic sources that inspired them, from Japanese traditional painting styles to European prints, oil paintings and photographs. Essays by Japanese specialists Hirota Takashi and Matsubara Fumi focus on Takashimaya textiles and the development of embroidery designs. 4. Types and TechniquesDetailed study of the main types of Meiji artistic textiles, their background and the techniques involved.- Embroidery (with glossary of techniques)- Yuzen resist-dyeing and yuzen-dyed cut velvet- Silk tapestry weaving- Oshi-e raised silk picturesAppendices1. Makers and MarksIllustrated list of producing companies, embroiderers and designers2. Additional WorksTextiles not included in the main catalogueBibliography