How I met Mr. Issyu Kakinuma (Japanese traditional crafts master:urushi lacquer)

Here is a postcard which Mr. Kakinuma sent me in 1995. It was at the beginning of the year when I saw his urushi work at the first time in a small gallery in Tokyo. At that time, he was already authorized as Japanese traditional crafts master. I found out his address in the lists of crafts masters in order to offer him having his own exhibition in Tokyo. The postcard was his thank you note for my offer. Since then, it has been 16 years! I sometimes visit his studio at Murakami city in Niigata Pref. Of course I visited him for the meeting of Button House.

One of his techniques, Tsuisyu is amazing. He applies urushi lacquer to glass plate more than 100times that makes about 3mm thick urushi plate. After he pastes such plates together, he can get thicker one. He uses various colors of urushi.

Now I will show you his works which has the beautiful color layers.

Tsuisyu Obidome, “Purple field” 

Kyoko Ishikawa

Buttonhouse

http://buttonhouse.jp

How I met Ms. Tomoko Suyama (silversmith)

It was in 2002 when I met Tomoko at the first time.　It was not an accidental meeting.
I really searched and searched. At that time, I was planning an exhibition of Ms. Eiko Kimura. She is an embroidery artist. For her exhibition, I was eager to make accessories of Eiko’s embroidery. We needed someone to make silver frame for her new items.

I called and called metal artists up to ask this job, but no one said yes. When I nearly gave up, a silver artist introduced Tomoko as a silversmith well suited for the job. Since then they have collaborated.

Now I will show you the work, Eiko’s fine embroidery and Tomoko’s simple and nice frame.

Embroidery Obidome,"Scent"
Eiko Kimura
Silver frame: Tomoko Suyama




Kyoko Ishikawa

Buttonhouse

http://buttonhouse.jp

Buttonhouse has opend

Hello, I am Kyoko Ishikawa, director of Yubiya. I am happy to inform you that we start new web-site, “Button House”. Though there are thousands of buttons in the shops, you have never seen such a kind of buttons in this site. I will show you high-quality, gorgeous and unique ones.

I had the Obidome exhibitions four times in every two years since 2004. Obidome is a kind of accessory for Obi-sash. Creating them with some crafts artists was interesting.
We had to keep our mind on the limitation of this unique accessory. I would like to make use of my experience for Button House.

I sometimes order my suits but I am not satisfied with the buttons very much.
It is my great pleasure that the buttons in this site will make your dresses, bags and hats your only and worthy one.

Kyoko Ishikawa

Buttonhouse

http://buttonhouse.jp