Product Description

Shizuka Kusano is one of the most admired and recognized textile artists in Japan today. With the publication of The Fine Art of Kimono Embroidery, readers in the West will come to know and appreciate her work for its great beauty and grace. Kusano's canvases are kimono, obi (the sash used to tie the kimono) and tapestries, on which she creates extraordinary compositions in brilliant color and subtle tones, with a rich contrast in textures. Her themes are drawn from Japanese poetry, literature and art, and feature such seasonal motifs as trees, flowers, birds, and streams, designs which are uniquely Japanese in sensibility and expression. Working exclusively with silk threads and fabric, and delicately balancing the use of space in her composition, Kusano's designs achieve the sophistication for which the best Japanese art is known.
Selected works are shown here in full color with explanatory captions, while a separate section covers the primary techniques used on each piece. In addition, Kusano writes about how she developed her art, providing commentary on her themes and sources of inspiration. She also includes an essay on the history of embroidery in Japan from the time it was introduced into the country from China in the sixth century up to the present.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #501141 in Books
• Published on: 2007-02-16
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 112 pages

Review

About the Author

Shizuka Kusano's work has been featured many times in women's magazine and she can be seen on two nationwide TV programs, one of which is broadcast on the educational channel NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation). She teaches at more than five different places, including the Tokyo American Club. She had been part of at least 30 major exhibitions in the last 5 years, and has had one solo show. Kusano is the author of five books in Japanese; this is her first in English.

Customer Reviews

A recommendation for not only art and needlework libraries, but for general-interest collections as well.
Any with more than a light interest in Japanese embroidery will readily recognize the author's name, for Shizuka Kusano is one of Japan's premiere textile artists, and her 'canvases' are the kimono, obi, and tapestries. Dozens of her works are featured in a color guide that also covers the techniques used on each of her pieces. Kusano's essay on how she began in and developed her talents includes a history of embroidery in Japan. The pairing of history, art, and how-to will make FINE ART OF KIMONO EMBROIDERY a recommendation for not only art and needlework libraries, but for general-interest collections as well.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

beautiful embroidery
It is not a book to teach you embroidery, but the beautiful photos will give you inspiration....

Not what I was looking for
I was ambivalent about how many stars to give this book. If what you're looking for is a book full of beautiful pictures of beautiful kimonos and obi with breathtaking finished embroidery done by a master embroiderer, then I imagine this book is a five star book. But that's not what I was looking for.

I was looking for a book that offered Japanese embroidery designs and motifs that I could use in my own hand embroidery. What I typed into Amazon's search engine was "Japanese embroidery designs" and this book came up. The "Search Inside" feature for the book offers pictures that could and did lead me to think that I would find patterns for what I was looking at, and the book's title doesn't dissuade one from thinking that.

This is a coffee table book, showcasing, with excellent photography, the extraordinary talents of Shizuka Kusano. I wrote this review so that others who might be looking for designs, motifs, or patterns might not also be disappointed by buying a book that is not what they expected it to be.