Washitales: An Exhibition by Visual Artist Kyoko Ibe

About the Artist

Kyoko Ibe began her artistic creation using handmade paper at a time when the material was used exclusively for traditional Japanese arts and crafts. After completing a masters degree at the Kyoto Institute of Technology in 1967, Ibe continued working with paper and has been invited to more than 20 countries for exhibitions, workshops, lectures, teaching, and as a jury member. Her work pushes the limits of paper, transforming a craft into an art form. She also creates large scale installations, a wide range of interior products, stage sets, and costumes. Ibe’s radically new approach to paper combines a respect for tradition with technological experimentation. She has collaborated internationally with many theater groups and received an Isadora Duncun Visual Design Award for the stage set of Tandy Beal Company in 1987. She has created stage sets and costumes for Recycling; Washitales, directed by Elise Thoron, which had its world premiere at the Krannert Center for Performing Arts at the University of Illinois in 2011 and then traveled to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s Bing Theater. In 2016, Recycling Washitales was performed at the Asia Society Theater. She had a solo exhibition at the Stockton University Gallery in 2017 where Washitales was performed in the gallery. Ibe is professor emerita of Kyoto Institute of Technology, and she served as an adjunct professor at the University of Illinois from 2008 to 2013. She is the author of many books in English and Japanese. Ibe has received many awards, nationally and internationally, and was selected to be a special advisor for the Agency of Cultural Affairs of Japan in 2009. She received the Kyoto City Cultural Merit Laureate Award in 2019.

About Washi

Washi is traditional handmade paper. In Japan, the production of papermaking goes back to the 7th century. It was invented by the Chinese in 2nd-3rd century BCE. A special technique of making paper using tree fiber as the raw material was developed, and it became the prototype for the production of washi. The development of papermaking in Japan was indebted to the country’s geo-ecological conditions, climate, religious beliefs and its people’s mentality.

Among daily necessities paper has played an important role, even providing clothing and materials for homes. Paper has been used in rituals, ceremonies and festivals throughout Japanese history. The ancient Japanese believed that divine spirits were present in paper. The name “kami” (the general word for paper) has the same pronunciation as the word for the gods or deities in Japan.

In the 20th century, paper used in everyday life is made by machines. However, there are still a few hundred Japanese families engaged in traditional papermaking, people who are living cultural treasures for not only Japan, but the world.

A single sheet of handmade white paper is a quiet, solitary object. It causes one to calm the heart and gives a warm, peaceful feeling that can’t come from machine-made paper. One of the principal developers of the tea ceremony, Sen Rikyu, in the 16th century declared four words to elucidate Japanese aesthetics: Harmony, Respect, Purity and Tranquility. The Japanese paper is the most eloquent expression of Sen Rikyu’s idea. It is perfectly adapted to express an eco-aesthetic sensibility which can carry us into the future with beauty and mindfulness of our fragile, precious natural world.