Period:
2017.11.18(Sat.) - 2018.6.24(Sun.)
10:00 - 18:00 (until 20:00 on Fridays and Saturdays)
2017.11.18(Sat.) - 2018.6.24(Sun.)
10:00 - 18:00 (until 20:00 on Fridays and Saturdays)
Design Gallery / 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa
Mondays (Open on Jan 8, Feb 12), and Jan 9 (Tue.), Feb 13 (Tue.)
Free
21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa
Phone: +81-76-220-2800
Facsimile: +81-76-220-2802
E-Mail: info@kanazawa21.jp
Part 1 the “Local Textile” series features TO & FRO, a travel gear brand of the Kaji Group based in Kanazawa and Kahoku. The brand’s name evokes an image of traveling lightly and comfortably “to and fro.” The Kaji Group, possessing advanced technology for weaving extremely thin thread, is producing fabric of unusually light nylon. The nylon fabric is currently used in products by outdoor brands around the world. TO & FRO is the Kaji Group’s own brand of travel organizers and other products created using this fabric. The travel organizers are displayed in this exhibition along with a wide range of fabric samples. Ishikawa prefecture, as a textile producer, has also developed a loom manufacturing industry. Although textile production tends to rely on division of labor, the Kaji Group possesses its own plant for customizing looms. Innovative production at the plant has enabled thread tensioning conducive of weaving with the thinnest, most easily breakable threads. High functionality is a powerful competitive edge over inexpensive mass-produced imported products and an important strategy for the future of Japan’s textile industry.
“Local Textile” is a three-part exhibition series staged in the Design Gallery from November 2017. Its theme—the textile industry in Kanazawa and surrounding areas. In the feudal age, textile production thrived as an industry in Kanazawa, thanks to the region’s humid climate and the backing of local clan lords. From the late 1800s, textile production became a vigorous export industry. It remained the Kanazawa region’s core industry thereafter—even in Japan’s postwar years when demand shifted from silk to synthetic fiber. Today, Ishikawa prefecture produces 40% of Japan’s nylon. Nevertheless, Japan’s textile industry as a whole is now in a crisis. Low-cost labor in China and Southeast Asia is undercutting the price competitiveness of Japanese textiles in international markets. This exhibition series will showcase the region’s efforts to overcome this crisis by deploying the power of design and innovation in sync with regional character, so as to launch a new era.
Founded in Ichikawa prefecture in 1934. Group companies include Kaji Seisakusho Co., Ltd. (machinery and parts) and Kajirene Inc. (fabric production) in Kahoku City, and Kaji Nylon Inc. (synthetic fibers), Kaji Knit Inc. (high gauge knits), and Kaji Sewing Inc. (baby clothes) in Kanazawa. In 2014, the Kaji Group launched its own brand, To & Fro.
On the occasion of the TO & FRO exhibition at 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, the museum shop will host a “Travel Fair.” Organizers (pouches) fabricated in orange, the museum’s theme color, will be sold during the exhibition.
21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa (Kanazawa Art Promotion and Development Foundation)
Kaji Group co. ltd