In a world created by art legend Yanagi Sōetsu, and mentored by a number of Living National Treasures across a range of practices, master tsutsugaki artist and Shugendō shaman, Kobayashi Shumei has cultivated a singular talent for traditional Japanese dyeing practices and a critical intellectual approach to the identity of the artist.
Under the guidance and apprenticeship of Living National Treasure, Katano Motohiko (1889-1975), Kobayashi mastered the 400 year old tsutsugaki technique of painting directly onto fabric with no stencil, and came to extol the virtues of original thought and individual creativity.
Eschewing the traditional Japanese studio practice of assigning specific techniques or processes to apprenticed specialists, Shumei is one of the very few remaining artists of the venerable 'tsutsugaki' technique and the only practitioner of the resist-based painting and dyeing art who is master of the entire process from concept to final artwork.
The elemental powers of earth, water, fire, air and time are his only assisstants.
With many accolades and prizes throughout his illustrious career, Kobayashi has been the subject of several documentaries in Japan; led workshops and seminars in Australia sponsored by the Japan Foundation; and delivered numerous lectures and demonstrations of traditional dyeing techniques at museums and professional institutions worldwide.
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The artist’s life-long practice as a Shugendō Buddhist shaman and its respect for, and communion with, nature and the spiritual world informs all his work. His original and contemporary interpretations of these elements speak both to the ageless universal and to the current zeitgeist.
Waterfalls
瀧・滝
The idea of water, waterfalls, as sacred is one that arises from the understanding of water as a manifestation of nature - the larger its scale, the greater our feeling of otherworldly grandeur.
From ancient times, humans have acknowledged water’s scarcity and significance. It is both revered and feared - floods for example, water bursting forth as a manifestation of the unapproachable divine. On occasion, waterfalls have even been deified.
These works express 40 years of my personal experiences and feelings toward grand waterfalls, particularly the Nachi falls (in Wakayama province, one of the best-known falls in Japan).
Master of silk, cotton and hemp dyeing, Shumei’s power as an artist is strongest in his contemporary interpretations of the traditional Japanese noren, hanging curtain.
Often abstracted visions of various ideas of ‘{inter}connected-ness’, or astute expressions of the animating spirit of his subjects, Shumei's bold designs sit as dynamic contrasts to the sensual texture of their background fabric – newly woven linen, fine silk or thick chunky strands of hemp.
On silk, cotton and hemp, Shumei's powerful technique midwives a colour palette of astounding impact. Using the noren as the canvas for his individual designs, Kobayashi has transformed the form into contemporary textile art.
NOREN - LARGE
Dragon
$33 000
Basara
$15, 840
Bamboo Grove
$22, 728
Pine Grove
$23, 760
