“Work by Hand”

The human hand is an amazing tool that can turn a feeling into something material in the blink of an eye. As human beings, we have always used our hands to create by bringing together different elements of living—our own heads and hearts, the lives of those before us, what we treasure and seek to cultivate, as well as the spark of passion. India is a country that has long valued the role of human hands in shaping day-to-day life. Traveling north to south across India, we focused on the hand as a tool of wonder, learning from cultures built on handcraftsmanship. 

Working by hand is a natural part of every village and town that we visited, an integral part of daily life here. Each hand-created object is subtly different from the next, imitating the natural world, where each creation is unique. These differences are the inevitable and natural outcome of handcraftsmanship. Observe the details, and you’ll get a glimpse of the personality of the individual who created it.

Every handmade textiles is unadorned yet delicate. When visiting there, we were amazed by the primitive way of textile making that is no longer seen in any other places in the world. Yet, Indian regions still inherit the original production of textiles through delicate and indigenous craftsman techniques such as block printing, hand-weaving and braid machine work.

 

Click below link to unravel the insights from Akira Minagawa’s journey in India

Textiles of India 2 Leaflet（PDF:1.7MB）