An art exhibit put on by Ainu women opened this week in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward, offering a rare opportunity for the public to see, touch and even buy some 500 traditional handicrafts of the indigenous Hokkaido minority.
The event, organized by Tezukuri Utara, a Sapporo-based group of some 20 Ainu women who have restored their traditional embroidery and handicrafts, also features the first showing of some revived artworks that had been lost in the country.
They include bags for carrying beans and potatoes made of shredded Japanese linden bark fibers, and cloth caps with embroidery for women and children reproduced from originals found at German museums.
"Those caps were shipped to Germany by German missionaries about 140 years ago," said Sanae Ogawa, 58, the group's leader and an expert on Ainu embroidery.
"Only men's caps have been found in Japan, so we thought women and children were not allowed to wear caps. It was a really exciting moment when we first found the caps in Munich last December," she said.
Other handicrafts include traditional calf-length coatlike garments, small wooden bells and various belts, all decorated with appliques and embroideries of traditional patterns. The group is also exhibiting bags, bedspreads and tapestries featuring these patterns.
The exhibition will be open until Monday at Waseda Hoshien Seminar House, a five-minute walk from Waseda Station on the Tozai subway line. For more information, call the house at (03) 3205-5411.