Tuesday, April 11, 2023 - Monday, April 24, 2023
Funding for the residencies and Major Projects Award provided by the generous support of the Stanley-University of Iowa Foundation Support Organization, the Center for Asian and Pacific Studies, and the UI School of Art and Art History.
These residencies are hosted by the UI Center for the Book with support from UI International Programs.
The UI Center for the Book (UICB) will host two visiting artisans from the Echizen papermaking region of Japan: Masami Igarashi and Hideaki Taki. Echizen has a 1,500-year history of hand papermaking, and Igarashi and Taki are leaders in their respective modes of paper production. Over the course of two weeks, the UICB's resident artisans will engage the UI community with lectures, hands-on workshops and demonstrations, and the production of a papermaking project at the UICB Oakdale Papermaking Research Facility.
Co-organizer and UICB papermaking faculty member Nicholas Cladis lived and worked in the Echizen papermaking village for several years. In 2021, Cladis received an Arts & Humanities Initiative Major Project Award to take a group of graduate students to the village for an immersive papermaking experience. The goal of The Future of a Tradition is to further anchor Echizen expertise in Iowa City, while enlarging the outreach objectives of the UICB and allied partners. Joining Cladis as co-organizer is Matthew Brown, associate professor in the Department of English at the University of Iowa.
Public Events
Masami Igarashi and Hideaki Taki will be on campus for two weeks, engaging UI students, faculty, and the greater Iowa City community in workshops, demonstrations, and presentations. Events open to the public include:
Paper Artisan Talk and Q&A
Thursday, April 13, 2023, from 6 - 8 p.m.
Location: Adler Journalism and Mass Communication Building, room 105
Join the UI Center for the Book and UI International Programs in welcoming Masami Igarashi and Hideaki Taki to the university. Both artisans will be discussing the types of papers they make in their respective studios, as well as their personal background with the craft. Presentations will be followed by a Q&A and an opportunity to handle and purchase papers from both mills.
Japanese Papermaking Festival
Friday, April 14, 2023, from 1 - 4:30 p.m.
Location: North Hall Lawn (rain location: ground floor of North Hall)
UICB graduate students and two visiting paper artisans from Japan (Masami Igarashi and Hideaki Taki) will be hosting hands-on workshops connected to the world of handmade paper. All are welcome! Bring your friends, roommates, and family and become a part of this wonderful celebration of the art of hand papermaking.
Residents
Masami Igarashi
Masami Igarashi grew up surrounded by Japanese paper, having been born into the family papermaking business originally founded in 1919. In 1995, she formally joined her family’s paper company, Igarashi Paper, where she primarily makes paper for fusuma sliding doors. Igarashi is well-known for making these large-format sheets of paper and has incorporated several new patterns into their manufacture. She was certified as a traditional artisan in 2015. Her most recent project is an upcycled form of papermaking in Japan called “Food Paper,” wherein traditional papermaking fibers are combined with vegetable and fruit waste from various sources.
Hideaki Taki
Hideaki Taki is a graduate of the Fukui Institute of Technology in Fukui Prefecture, Japan. After working at an interior design office, he joined his family’s paper mill in 2005. The Taki paper mill was originally founded in 1873. Hideaki Taki was certified as a traditional artisan in 2019. Taki’s aim is to reinvigorate the Japanese papermaking industry with new designs and options. He is also involved in the management of projects such as the Future Crafts Festival and RENEW, both of which focus on the sustainability of Fukui Prefecture’s traditional crafts.
Co-Organizers
Matthew Brown
Brown is an associate professor in the Department of English at the University of Iowa. He teaches literary and cultural history, with a courtesy appointment in the UI Center for the Book. His particular research interest is in the history of readership, as reflected in his book The Pilgrim and the Bee: Reading Rituals and Book Culture in Early New England (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007). It was awarded honorable mention by the MLA for Best First Book in 2007. His articles have appeared in American Literary History, American Quarterly, Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, Early American Literature, and PMLA.
Nicholas Cladis
Nicholas Cladis teaches papermaking courses at the UI Center for the Book and oversees the Oakdale Papermaking Research Facility. He is a 2022 recipient of the Japan Foundation Fellowship for Research on Japanese Art. Before joining the UI, Cladis lived and worked in the Echizen papermaking region of Japan for many years, where he trained with papermakers and served on the executive committee of the non-profit arts organization Imadate Art Field. His work has been shown nationally and internationally. Most recently, he hosted public papermaking workshops and created a community handmade paper installation at Iowa City arts center Public Space One. Other recent projects include: research on and reproduction of Nara and Heian Period decorative papers, archiving of Japanese contemporary paper art from the 1970s to the present, and production of specialized handmade papers for clients such as the National Archives conservation unit.
About Major Projects
Through the generous support of the Stanley-UI Foundation Support Organization, International Programs' Major Projects Award promotes important contributions to scholarly debates and exchanges on international topics, issues, discoveries, and arts.
International Programs' Major Projects encourage activities or endeavors on a broader scale. These may take the form of collaborations, symposia, conferences, lecture series, artistic exhibitions, and performance events.
All events are free and open to the public.
International Programs Monthly Newsletter
Stay current on events like this major project and others offered throughout the year.
Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all University of Iowa sponsored events. If you are a person with a disability who requires a reasonable accommodation in order to participate in this program, please contact Daniel Vorwerk in advance by email at daniel-vorwerk@uiowa.edu or call 319-467-1619.