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 “SAORI” - its beginning
When Misao Jo was 57 years old, she built a loom, and started weaving as
a hobby. One day, she wove an “Obi” (a belt for Japanese Kimono), and found
a warp thread was missing. But she thought it was making a good effect,
and she was very pleased to find that a nice pattern had been formed by
an accident. She showed the “Obi” to a person who was running a weaving
factory in her neighborhood because she wanted to know how other people
would value her weaving. The man told her that her “Obi” was “flawed” and
it would be worthless as a commercial product because one warp thread was
missing. Misao realized that a commercial factory is only eager to produce
a “flawless”cloth, but she would be able to achieve a hand woven quality
through intentionally making a “flawed” cloth.
Then she began to weave an “Obi” with many “flaws”. It was easy. She just
skipped some blades of the reed when warping her loom. In doing so, she
found that the absence of warp threads in irregular intervals and varied
thickness could make more interesting effects. She finally finished an
“Obi”, and it was highly praised by an owner of an “Obi” shop in "Shinsaibashi
Street" (an expensive shopping street in Osaka, Japan).
Misao thought the aesthetic quality that made the “Obi” valuable must have
derived from something hidden inside herself. And it must have been possible
because she broke away from the conventional ways of thinking. She thought
that weaving could be a way of self-expression if she could stay faithful
to her true self when she weaves, without imitating "flawless"
cloth produced by commercial factories.
She built a new loom with her third son, Kenzo, to put her idea into practice.
She wove many items and gave them to her friends who were very grateful
for it, and her friends soon became very eager to learn how to weave. Misao
named her weaving method “SAORI” and started her career as a weaving teacher.
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“SAORI”- a process to uncover hidden power of creativity
 She started teaching with 5 students. In her first lesson, she showed them
how to warp the loom, and assisted them in each step of preparation. Then
she told them to weave as they liked and advised that they should try not
to weave a cloth that looked machine-made. To her surprise, soon the students
started to weave beautiful works. The talents hidden inside them were uncovered
through weaving.
Through this experience she was convinced that anyone had a power of creativity,
and if given the chance, anyone could bring out their hidden ability and
demonstrate it in their works. The conventional way of teaching practiced
in traditional lessons such as “Ikebana” (flower arrangement) or doll making
had forced the students to follow the teacher’s instructions or copy a
sample. This was what had prevented the people from expressing individuality
and discovering their abilities hidden inside.
So she decided to follow the following process. She would just teach her
students the basic techniques of using a loom, and helped them remove their
stereotypical preconceptions of weaving. But once the students mastered
the basic technique, she would just let them weave what they liked. She
would give them some suggestions and see how they would react, but would
never make further intervention. This gave the weavers an opportunity to
discover their true selves, and eventually gave a pleasure to both weavers
and herself.. |
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 SAORI is a free-style hand weaving with no rules and ristrictions. SAORI
is an art form in which we express our true selves in weaving. There is
no samples to follow, and there is no mistakes in weaving. Weavers just
weave what they want to with a complete freedom and creativity.
To weave fleely is not easy sometimes. We live in a world with many kinds
of rules and restrictions. We are unconsciously affected by those rules
and restrictions, and it often can be very difficult for us to get rid
of our fixed notions and to express our hidden creativity in weaving. |
In SAORI, we have four slogans, and one of them is "Consider the differences
between machines and people". We try not to weave a cloth which looks
like a machine-made cloth, which values regularty of patterns and cleaness
of the cloth. In SAORI, we try to do the oposite of the machine-made cloth.
No two weavers are alike, and it is very natural that every single cloth
freely woven by people with different personalities is beautiful in a different
way. The irregular selvage and accidental skip of thread add the unprogrammed
beauty to the SAORI cloths; and we admire this irregularity as "the
beauty with lack of intentions" created by our natural creativity.
In SAORI, we do not weave only a cloth. We weave our true self.
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Thanks to its unique philosophy of freedom and creativity, the SAORI has
been welcomed in more than 40 countries in passed 40 years. There are many
facilities, institutions and schools outside Japan, which introduce SAORI
Weaving Program as a part of their activities. There are more than 10 official
SAORI Weaving studios outside Japan where the specially trained instructors
teach SAORI Weaving to the people in their community who are seeking for
the opportunities to express themselves in weaving.
Visit our global website in English (http://www.saoriglobal.com) to find more about the philosophy and history of SAORI Weaving. The SAORI
Weaving studio directory outside Japan is also available on the global
website. Find a studio in your region, and try and experience the true
freedom and creativity in the SAORI Weaving.
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A book about SAORI Weaving is available in English.
SAORI, Self-discovery through Free Weaving
by Misao Jo & Kenzo Jo
History and philosophy of SAORI, techniques of warping and weaving, instructions
and patterns on how to make SAORI clothes...
Order a copy from one of the official SAORI Weaving Studios in your country, or directly from SAORINOMORI if you cannot find a studio
in your country. |
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Misao Jo, founder of SAORI Weaving
(Born in 1913, Osaka, Japan) |
"All flowers are beautiful, even though each individual flower is different
in form and color. Because of this difference, “all are good”. Because
everything has the same life, life cannot be measured by a yardstick. It
is this individuality that makes everything meaningful and the uniqueness
of each thread that creates the tapestry of life."
She was commended by Japanese government twice for her public contribution
made through SAORI hand weaving program. In 1990, she was honored by the
Minister of Health and Welfare, and in 1992 again by the Prime Minister
of Japan.
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April, 2011 at Saorinomori on her 98th birthday |
Misao Jo weaving at Saorinomori with a TV crue and photographer visiting
for an interview. |
Misao Jo weaves everyday
at SAORINOMORI. |
She just sits in front of her loom
and weaves quietly. |
Misao once finished a cloth as long as 17 meters.
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A photo from the "Misao Jo Exhibition"
in 2008.
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