Akezuba textiles are made of threads that are only about 1/10 of the thickness of human hair.

One of Okinawa’s top rated silk textile artisans, Michiko Uehara, opens an exhibition tomorrow at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology.

The ‘Akezuba’ exhibition will be open daily from 9 a.m. ~ 5 p.m. in the B250 Foyer on Level B of the Center Building, OIST Main Campus, 1919-1 Tancha, Onna Village.  The exhibition is free.

Michiko Uehara’s works are called “Akezuba textiles”, a very thin textile.  She’s known not ony in Japan, but also inforeign countries.  Akezuba means the fabric is as light as the feather of a dragonfly.  Her textile style is carried out in a light and delicate form, like the feather of a dragonfly, and thus the name.  Her works may loosen from the cocoon of the live silkworm occasionally, as she creates about three meters of handwoven cloth.  Threads are only about 1/10 the thickness of a human hair, which is 1/5mm.

Born in Naha in 1949, Uehara studied weaving under the guidance of Yoshihiro Yanagi in Tokyo, returning to Okinawa in 1974 to learn techniques of traditional Okinawa weaving from Oshiro Shizuko.  In 1979 she set up her Mayu Textile Studio.

Past exhibitions range from the Nununu-Kai Art Forum in in Tokyo in 1986 and a solo show at Bin Craft Gallery in Okinawa, to a series of exhibitions and forums around the world.  They include:

1993  solo-show “Perspectives of forms and visions”, IBM Civic Culture Gallery, Kawasaki, Japan.  1998 “Structure and Surface-Contemporary Japanese Textiles”, The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, USA, *It goes it round St. Louis, San Francisco, and Frankfurt (Germany) until 2001.  2001 “Contemporary Textile ?Weaving and Dyeing: Ways of Formative Thinking”, Crafts Gallery of The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan. Solo-show at Sakima Art Museum, Okinawa, Solo-show at Town mille Gallery, Lyme-Regis Great Britain.

2002 “Contemporary Japanese Craft materials and ways of Formative Thinking”, PETRONAS Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, *It goes it round Jakarta(Indonesia), “Okinawa Now”, Long House reserve Gallery, New York, USA.

2003   “SIDE BY SIDE”, Ronald-Pyle Gallery, Ely, Great Britain. 2004 “Cool & Light: New Spirit in Craft Making”, Crafts Gallery of The National  Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan.  2006 solo-show at Daiwa Foundation Japan House, London, Great Britain.  2008   “OKINAWA Prism 1872-2008”The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan, 2010 solo-show “Between Nothing and Life” Textile KULTUR Haslach  /Haslach, Austria, solo-show “SILK DREAMS ”SieboldHuis /Leiden, Holland, solo-show　“AKEZUBA”Association Amities Tissees/Paris,France, 2012　“Beyond a thread-Hands working the fabric of life”Fukuoka Prefectural Museum of Art/Fukuoka,Japan, “JAPAN the land of enchantment”Palace Vecchio/Firenze,Italy, “Okinawan Textile”Joshibi university of art and design Museum/kanagawa,Japan, “OKINAWA ART in New York”The Nippon Gallery at the Nippon Club / NewYork

In addition, she holds several exhibitions in various locations every year.  Overseas works include 2001 Lectures at RCA (Royal College of Art), London, Great Britain, 2002 Artist in residence during 40 days period at Surrey University, Surrey, Great Britain, and Public Collections 2000 Crafts Gallery of The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan.

2002 Nippon Silk Center, Gunma, Japan. 2003 The National Galleries of Scotland, Scotland, Great Britain. 2006 Rotterdam World Museum, Rotterdam, Holland, 2007  Okinawa Prefectural Museum & Art Museum, Okinawa, Japan.

• 
• NO DATA