Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #42425 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-02-24
• Rating: G (General Audience)
• Formats: Dolby, NTSC
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 155 minutes

Review
I've received a review copy of the film Arimatsu-Narumi Shibori from Studio Galli Productions and have watched it with great interest. Knowing Yoshiko Wada personally, and having also read her books and being familiar with her work, the film comes up to my high expectations. Starting with a brief historical setting of the Arimatsu-Narumi Shibori village and community, it introduces us to the Shibori process. Following that, a significant amount of time is dedicated to different Shibori techniques done by hand and even machine aided techniques are touched upon. The entire presentation is accompanied by pleasant background music and sober aesthetics. The presentation is very didactic and shows such a wide range of different Shibori techniques in depth that it is a document to treasure. Anyone who really wants to study a variety of hand knotting techniques with tools, stitching, pleating or folding and clamping techniques will find an exhaustive step by step approach of each of these techniques. While viewing the DVD you may notice that nearly all persons who were willing to share their skills have already reached maturity which made me conclude that this film was made "just on time". Thanks to this initiative, a new public will be encouraged to learn these techniques but also-- and not in the least-- to preserve them. As Yoshiko states, "There is no limit to what can be achieved, with skill, practice and imagination". The film is a document but no doubt it is also a vat full of possibilities. On the quest of blowing new life into Traditional Shibori Techniques this is yet another milestone. --Karla de Ketelaere, Tobasign Natural Dyes - Barcelona, Spain

Review
Anyone who is interested in traditional textile techniques or who is involved in designing and making contemporary textiles will find inspiration in this fascinating new DVD from Studio Galli. Being a silk painter with a love of resist techniques and a consuming interest in traditional Japanese textiles, you can imagine my excitement when I heard that Andrew Galli (of Studio Galli Productions) and world-renowned Shibori scholar Yoshiko Iwamoto Wada were making this film, documenting the work of the Shibori artisans of Arimatsu and Narumi. A copy arrived on my doormat in due course and I sat absolutely riveted for over 2 hours, watching old hands binding and stitching with extraordinary speed and dexterity, dyes being mixed and folded fabric emerging from vats of colour, transformed into sophisticated and intricately patterned cloth. Shibori is an ancient resist technique which involves compressing cloth in various ways before dyeing it. Many different methods of binding, stitching, pleating, and clamping have been developed and refined in Japan and elsewhere, elevating Shibori from a craft to an art form. The Shibori artisans of Arimatsu and Narumi still work as a village co-operative, each family specialising in an aspect of Shibori production, be it designing, binding, dyeing or finishing. The skills have been passed on within the families and watching the DVD I felt privileged to have the opportunity to view a private world and grateful for the knowledge so generously shared and for the insight I gained into an extraordinary culture. The film starts with a short history of Japanese Shibori, brought to life by the beautiful woodcuts of the Ukiyo-e artists. It is then divided into three parts. Part One focuses on the Shibori process, from designing and stenciling, through the Shibori methods to dyeing, steaming and finishing. It ends with an overview of design inspirations using mixed techniques - of special interest to all contemporary Shibori artists. Part Two takes us through a wide range of hand Shibori techniques: hand knotting using tools, stitching, pleating and folding and clamping. Part Three looks at machine aided Shibori and Sekka dyeing. Each process is clearly demonstrated and beautifully filmed, often in slow motion to enable us to see exactly what is being done. Yoshiko s narration carefully explains each step, making this an excellent DVD for teachers and textile students. I tried out a number of the techniques myself, pausing play while I practiced a movement or tied a knot, and found it easy to follow. Mind you, you will need a Zen frame of mind to tackle some of the techniques; Kanoko Shibori, for instance, involves binding and knotting thousands upon thousands of minute dots on a 12 yard bolt of kimono cloth. You will need to foster patience and serenity to become a Shibori master! --Mandy Southan, Textile Artist & Author - United Kingdom

About the Actor
The Guild of Arimatsu- Shibori Artisans is one of the oldest surviving art guilds in the world today. For centuries these artists have acted as a collective producing textiles for sale. Their work not only decorates many modern homes but as well they have produced textiles and provided instruction and method interpretation for ballet and opera wardrobe artists as well as famous New York and Tokyo design houses.

Customer Reviews

Superb Japanese shibori DVD

I just got my copy of this new DVD. It is just wonderful! It is so much easier to understand the shibori techniques now that I can see them. The DVD is as beautiful, graceful and elegant as the techniques themselves. The text is clear and concise without being repetitious. Yoshiko's voice is delicate and reserved in the most lady like Japanese manner and yet well articulated and confident. Andrew Galli, Producer of Studio Galli Production, Editor Eric Bailey, Associate producer and English version expert Yoshiko Wada and her collaborator Hiroshi Murase in Arimatsu have done something just wonderful for the preservation of these crafts and to honor the artisans who still perform them. The scope of this living legacy is very inclusive with both the history of Shibori, and pracatical application of the techniques as they are used today. I was pleased to see that some of these women (and men) are not 85 years old! I am hopeful for the continuation of this great craft tradition. The DVD will be a great aid to all of us who practice or teach shibori, and it should be of interest to historians and collectors of Japanese textiles as well. I know I will watch it over and over.

very informative but......
This was a very informative DVD with excellent close up views of skilled artisans demonstrating many different techniques. However, my copy of the DVD was defective and i could not play whole sections. I need to find out how to obtain a replacement....
Update: Amazon sent a replacement very quickly - most impressive-and this one seems to be working fine for searching the menu. I would strongly recommend this DVD for anyone interested in trying the various shibori techniques themselves. It complements the written descriptions in the excellent books "Shibori- the inventive art of Japanese shaped resist dyeing" by Yoshiko Iwamoto Wada- the woman who narrates the English version of the DVD- and others and "Memory on cloth Shibori now" also by Wada.

Essential for the visual learner
After reading several of Yoshiko Iwamoto Wada's books on shibori, I really wanted to see how it was made in realtime, not just as a series of printed images. This DVD does the trick, and it's even narrated by the venerable Wada san. Seeing each step of the process from design through to production and display of the final product brings home the understanding of how complex and time consuming the creation of shibori textiles can be.