Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival - 7 More quilts?! And more things?!

By now you are probably fed up with Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival.

Yes? Stop reading now.

Don't know? Well, here is a summery for you; this post contains:

• the winning quilts
• other quilts
• kogin
• whitework
• boutis
• Japanese embroidery

No? Then read on.

The Grand Prix, Best in show, went to

a quilt in indigo blue

三坂悦子＊Etsuko Misaka

Second prize went to this absolutely STUNNING quilt - a masterpiece if ever I saw one!

渡辺章子＊Akiko Watanabe

The prize for handmade quilt

川上亜矢子＊Ayako Kawakami

This quilt needed a lot of planning and fussy cutting

鬼塚美佐子＊Misako Onitsuka

Here a sample of the clever use of kimono fabric, to dress the lady in - a kimono!

市村静子＊Shizuko Ichimura

Every quilt show has some indigo quilts

古谷敦子＊Atsuko Furuya

A charming village quilt

植松章子＊Akiko Uematsu

Red and white is always striking

出家晴美＊Harumi Shukke

Amish quilts are popular, even when they are machine quilted

小圷サト子＊Satoko Koakutsu

Look how you can use the Buttonhole stitch on the machine for a nice accent.

池敬子＊Keiko Ike

A Japanese quilt show is not a show without a taupe quilt. This one features Tokyo Station, in celebration of the station's 100th anniversary.

内藤千鶴子＊Chizuko Naito

Handquilted Baltimore Album quilts are also popular

上坂和美＊Kazumi Uesaka

A lot of perfection and work has gone into this quilt.

清田澄枝＊Sumie Kiyota

Here is a quilt to inspire my friend of Hokkaido Kudasai! 

How many Mondays' worth of count would you need before you finished this quilt, Pamela?

田中福子＊Fukuko Tanaka

This famous artist never fails to amaze the crowds with her charming, lively and witty quilts.

関田陽子＊Yoko Sekita


NHK (the TV broadcaster) has recently shown a series of documentaries about Japanese fabric. In one of the programmes they focused on Kogin, the embroidery used to reinforce farmers' clothes in Aomori prefecture of northern Japan. At the show there was a display of such clothes and stitching. Some of my readers will recognise these items once on display at the Amuse museum in Tokyo.

If you want to try your hand at Kogin, Carolyn Foyley of caro-rose-creations has worked an impressive number of patterns and kindly made them accessible on her blog.

Famous embroidery artist Ayako Ohtsuka had some of her beautiful items on display

So did boutis expert Kumiko Nakayama Geraerts

Finally, a display of impeccable Japanese embroidery by

A word of warning, there will be one more post from Tokyo International Great Quilts Festival, but it's about things you take home, such as shopping!

Kogin 2 - The Pride of Hirosaki

Kogin embroidery is something that the city of Hirosaki and Aomori prefecture is very proud of.

Near Hirosaki station the tiles of the pedestrian area and bus terminal have been laid out in Kogin patterns. See the view from this hotel.
There is a bridge in another area of the city decorated with Kogin pattern.

However, the first view of 'real' Kogin embroidery I got on my visit was at the 'onsen' inn I stayed at. 'Onsen' is the Japanese name for a mineral hot spring. As there are so many volcanos in Japan the number of 'onsens' is great. Almost everywhere you go there will be a hot spa in the neighbourhood. Aomori has its fair share.

Around a spring there usually are a number of public bath houses, inns and hotels. Unlike Western 'spas' these are not usually health farms with fitness plans, thermal treatments or doctors. Instead you go there to relax, be spoiled with service and enjoy eating local delicacies.
I stayed at Fujiya Hotel.

Like all other hotels and inns Fujiya had a hotel shop. They sold souvenirs, locally produced sweets and pickles, and handicraft.
Here was my first glimpse of Kogin embellished items, made in Aomori:

I wanted to see more and older things so the next day I went 'Kogin hunting'.

Kogin 1 - Kogin Country

Do you remember this photo I posted some weeks ago?

I took it during a trip to Hirosaki, which is in Aomori prefecture in the northern part of Japan's main island, Honshu.

Hirosaki castle park is famous for its many cherry trees, and autumn foliage, but I was lucky to see it in the first snow of the season.

The city of Hirosaki is well known for other things, too, like its summer festival 'Neputa', French food, apple pie, coffee, cocktails, three stringed shamisen...

Now this is a blog about needlework so I will leave the topic of tourist attractions, and talk instead of embroidery, because Hirosaki and the surrounding region, Tsugaru, is famous for Kogin embroidery.

This is a form of needle darning of fantastic geometric patterns. The stitch is simple, but the patterns complex.

Whenever I have seen Kogin embroidery, e.g. at the Amuse museum in Tokyo, or on handicraft projects I have been charmed by the designs. Whenever I have read about Kogin in books at the library or online, and there are a number of exceptional blogs (see below), I have been wanting to see and learn more.
So I went in search of Kogin on my trip to Hirosaki. I returned with reading matters, pattern, a ready stitched purse and sampler, and material to try it out for myself.

I will be blogging about my adventures with Kogin, but without any time plan or time pressure. The posts will be listed under 'Kogin' at the top of the blog.

The interest overseas for this kind of Japanese embroidery is growing and I have found several great blogs, written in English, if you would like to read more.
The Embroiderer's Guild W.A.
Japanese Textiles from a Westerner's Perspective
Emma Creations
Nuts About Needlepoint
A blogger many of my readers are already familiar with is Carolyn Foley of caro-rose-creations. Carolyn has made a fantastic job documenting hundreds of Hishizashi patterns and created several stunning projects. Read this and look at the first pattern here.

Red and white are the official colours of Japan, Hirosaki maple leaves in the snow were very red and white. Another colour combination commonly seen in Japan is, of course, blue and white. Kogin is mostly found to be white thread on dark blue fabric. The reason I selected the lighter blue fabric and white thread for sampler and the project

was this scene of Aomori's first snow

I will always see the resemblance between the snow covered rice fields and the structured stitches.

Until next Kogin post...