Some new-old books

Last week I wrote about getting some Japanese Temari books. Well now that the excitement of Mother's day and our school excursion to Kings Park is over I have time to actually blog about them.

Three of the books are quite old but they are all in mint condition. It is so lovely to have them in my collection.



The Gotenmari Photo Collection ISBN 4795203628

This book was printed in 1997 and is written in Japanese and English. It is such a treat to have in my collection. Miho visited us on Sunday for Mothers Day lunch and told me that the novel which inspired the temari designs in the first chapter of this book was the one her Mum wrote a thesis on during her university studies. The novel is called The Tale of Genji and is said to be the oldest Japanese novel. (I wonder if it has ever been translated into English.) This book has no patterns but it is a really beautiful book.

Furursato no Temari ISBN 7509000032012

This book was printed in 1990 and shows examples of styles of temari from all the various locations throughout Japan. I really like seeing the different styles from all over Japan. There are no patterns in this one but many of the almost 400 designs are similar to designs in newer books. There are a lot of temari I'd like to reverse engineer in this book.



Dentou no Temari ISBN 03000090303061

This book is by far the oldest (almost antique - just joking) being printed in 1973. This one has lots of patterns in the back with step by step pictures. Miho laughed as she showed me a picture and asked Do you know what I see? It was a 35mm film canister that was suggested to be used for holding a noisemaker in the center of the temari base... we both laughed... now the old film canister is a definite relic since digital camera age. Having this book is so fun to show how things have changed... but some still stayed the same over the last 40 years. I really love the design on the cover of this book.

This brings me to my last book, which is actually a new, new book. This one was released late last year and as my book supplier in Japan doesn't carry this one, I had too buy it from Amazon.jp.  I already planned the other three books and this one was just an extra thought seeing as Shirley had asked about it too.

Sanuki Temari ISBN 9784140311738

I know this book got some mixed reviews in Temari circles, but I really like it. Because the threads used are made by the Author (so far as I can tell) and are all coloured with natural dyes, the temari have a real earthy subtlety to them. There is only 1 design that uses metallic thread (my own personal crutch) and this makes the designs speak in more quiet, reverent tones. This book so inspired Miho that she wants to try to find uncoloured thread so we can try to tint it ourselves. I love the coloured step by step images in the pattern pages (a godsend for someone like me who tends to look blankly at a diagram and think... Huh??) This book also shows C6 designs. I believe that there is some contention about whether this is actually a valid/recognised division, but I have heard it talked about and wanted to try it forever but couldn't remember if or where I had seen instructions about marking it. Also this book shows making the base using  paper (it looks like some type of tissue paper) to contain the rice hulls and I can't see any yarn layer.
To sum up I do really like this book and can see myself having hours of stitching fun with it.