Textile Art - Serizawa Keisuke Museum, Shizuoka (Museum)

Serizawa Keisuke  (1895-1984) was a craft artist who worked with stencil dyeing techniques on textiles in bold colors and designs. He belonged to the folk-craft inspired group of Yanagi Soetsu, Hamada Shoji and Kawai Kanjiro (the so-called Mingei Movement). He was born in Shizuoka and the museum that opened in 1981 finds its origin in a donation he made of his works to his native city. The architect was Seiichi Shirai and the building of rough hewn, natural white stone and wood, interestingly centered around a courtyard that is completely filled by a pond, is itself also a masterpiece.


[Serizawa Keisuke Museum. Photo Ad Blankestijn]

The museum holds about 800 pieces of Serizawa's work and in addition possesses 4,500 items of the folk art the artist collected from all over the world (and that often became a source of inspiration for him, like it was for Shoji Hamada).

The dyeing technique Serizawa used is called kataezome and was inspired by Japanese traditional stencil dyeing crafts, such as Bingata from Okinawa. With this technique he produced a wide variety of works: noren (doorway curtains), byobu (folding screens), wall drapes, kimono and obi sashes.

Behind the museum stands the traditional Japanese house the artist lived in. It is open on the first and third Sunday of the month. Another large groups of works by Keisuke Serizawa can be found in the Ohara Museum of Art in Kurashiki.

This mingei museum happens to stand right next to the Toro site, a late-Yayoi period village of the third century, and you may want to take this opportunity for a stroll among the green remnants, where several dwellings have been reconstructed.

Shizuoka Municipal Keisuke Serizawa Museum

Tel. 0542-82-5522; 9:00-16:30; CL Mon, day after NH, last day of the month, NY, BE; By bus from Shizuoka station to Toro-Iseki.