Craft festival "Monomachi" in Tokyo!
Hello, I am Rei Furuya, ITA Certified Teacher, and director of ITA.
From 24th to 26th last month, Monomachi, an event held in Tokyo's Taito Ward, was held. Ateliers, studios, and stores offered workshops and other opportunities for visitors to experience their skills.
This year, 110 stores participated in the event.
My studio “Aoi Kai” also participated in the event as we did last year. About 90 people attended the workshop this year. The wide age range, from 3 years old to elderly participated.
It is always a lot of work to prepare for the event, but we received comments such as, “I was looking forward to experiencing tsumami zaiku!", “I came last year, so I wanted to try something different this year,” “That was fun! " and more.
This year, many elementary school boys wanted to try making snowflakes, which was difficult as it involves pinching a lot of ken tsumamis, but they all completed it very well.
Monomachi
is not only to let people know the charms of the city of manufacturing, but
also to help the various artisans and makers in the city get to know each other
and meet each other, which is just as important.
During the event's organizing meeting, participants got to know each other,
talked about their jobs and the city.
In the meantime, we received a call from a gauze specialist and agreed to do a
collaboration workshop next year. They are going to provide us with excellent
gauze with good texture.
It is a very nice trial for us to connect with other makers and create a new
project and it is a very nice trial.
It was a hectic but happy time.
If you are coming to Japan this time of year, please come to Monomachi to
experience various craftsmen's skills!