Ryoko Murakami

• Designation
  Living National Treasure (Important Intangible Cultural Property for Tsumugi silk)
• Category
  Textiles
• Techniques
  Tsumugi silk, Kasuri weaving
• Born
  1949 -
• Based in
  Kyoto
• Membership
  Full member, Japan Kogei Association
  

About the Artist

Using beautiful plant dye colors and bold designs to create charming tsumugi weave

Tsumugi weave artist Ryoko Murakami creates kimonos with spun floss silk thread. She uses scenes of nature as motifs for her designs. Her exquisite designs using translucent colors of plant dye and innovative color composition are very popular. Murakami studied under Fukumi Shimura, Living National Treasure for tsumugi weave. While succeeding the tradition, she constantly seeks new designs and ways of expression. In 2015, she received the Japan Kōgei Association Important Intangible Cultural Property Holder Award at the Japan Traditional Kōgei Exhibition, which is the largest craft exhibition in Japan. In the following year, she was designated as Living National Treasure for tsumugi weave. She is currently dedicating her best effort to teach her successors while actively producing new kimonos as a leader of the tsumugi weave world.

Style

Producing textiles with translucent colors created by traditional dyeing techniques using plant dye and making the most of the texture of tsumugi weave. She makes kimonos with original designs by combining tsuzureori (using weft with different colors) and kasuri techniques. The innovative designs are based on the vital power and scenes of nature, using symbolic expressions and beautiful colors.

Biography

• 1949
  Born in Akita Prefecture
• 1977
  Studied under Fukumi Shimura, Holder of Important Intangible Cultural Property
• 1999
  Submitted to 100 Selections of Contemporary Japanese Craft Exhibition (Paris)
• 2002
  "Ryoko Murakami Textiles Exhibition" (Ginza Wako Hall)
• 2004
  Evaluator at the 51st Japan Traditional Kōgei Exhibition (Held the post to date)
• 2007
  Submitted to "Crafting Beauty in Modern Japan:Celebrating Fifty Years of the Japan Traditional Art Crafts Exhibition" (British Museum, UK)
  Received the Medal with Purple Ribbon
• 2012
  Submitted to "The Elegance of Memory, Craft Arts in Modern Japan" Exhibition (Florence, Italy)
• 2013
  Submitted to "Contemporary Kōgei Styles in Japan" (Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens, Florida, USA)
  Submitted to "From Crafts to Kōgei In Commemoration of the 60th Japan Traditional Art Crafts Exhibition" (National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo)
• 2016
  Designated as Holder of Important Intangible Cultural Property for "Tsumugi Weave"
• 2020
  Received the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette

Awards

• 1989
  Received the Tokyo Governor Award at the 36th Japan Traditional Kōgei Exhibition
• 2002
  Received the Prince Takamatsu Memorial Award at the 49th Japan Traditional Kōgei Exhibition
• 2015
  Received the Japan Kōgei Association Important Intangible Cultural Property Holder Award etc. at the 62nd Japan Traditional Kōgei Exhibition

Public Collections

• The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
• The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto
• Agency for Cultural Affairs
• Jingu Art Museum