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Fiber artist Kay Sekimachi is Nisei, a second-generation Japanese American, born in San Francisco’s Japantown in 1926. At age three, Sekimachi lived in her ancestral home of Nakaishizaki, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan, for one year before she returned to the Bay Area with her mother and two sisters. The Sekimachi girls’ cultural education continued at home in Berkeley, where they spoke Japanese and practiced calligraphy and origami. On special occasions, their mother opened a kouri, or suitcase-like basket, that stored silk obi, or sashes, and kimono. Years later, after Sekimachi started weaving, her mother revealed that she and her grandmother had spun, dyed, and woven the silk for their obi. They often reminded Sekimachi that, "to be a good weaver, you have to feel like a thread." A very special thank you to Forrest L. Merrill for making this exhibition possible. See "Kay Sekimachi: Weaving Traditions" on display, post-security, in Harvey Milk Terminal 1. https://www.sfomuseum.org/exhibitions/kay-sekimachi-weaving
This image was posted on November 15, 2023.