From the Drawing board to Dyeing

In Manila, opportunity is fleeting because the city is a creative battleground Filipinos are imaginative and are entrepreneurial. There are many partners and competitors in every corner. Although collecting tenugui is rather a queer activity, there are many products and ideas from Japan flowing into the country. I needed to ride this wave before anyone sees the potential in this medium. I needed to act on it now. I thought of many artists friends to collaborate with and I felt it was best to work with Hocus MNL first. It was because all I knew about tenugui production was through Youtube. It looked like type of screen printing method. So, Hocus MNL came to mind as they are known screen printing artisans. They produce poster and fabric prints. They also do monthly workshops at Craft MNL.

I also felt at ease to work with Hocus MNL's Andrei and Sheina because we worked in the same creative hub 10 years ago. So, they were the first people I called right after the visiting the Likha fair. I am glad that they accepted because I didn't know any Manila artists specializing in screen printing as extensively as them. We first started with using the diamond pattern called Mata Mata as an initial inspiration. Yet, there wasn't enough information to hold onto to make this work feel true to Sagada. It was only after visiting the city itself that Andrei and I could mold it into reality. Then, a bottleneck came about because there was the pressure to represent Sagada and its symbols. If this was the only tapestry we made, we should make the most out of captivating our audience. We didn't have the luxury of a large company to focus on one idea per tenugui. It became a challenge to develop something meaningful and elegant. After a week or two of inspiration roadblocks, it came together when we started playing around the phases of the moon and the coffee cups. The phases tied the piece together and allowed us to have an area to highlight the gradation of colors. As we formed the image, we messaged friends from Sagada and Tenugui sellers from Tokyo to critic the design. They gave invaluable input such as placing a lizard to make it the true homage that we aspired to achieve.

After we could sleep easy knowing our design was ready, we emailed it to Nakani Dyeing Factory's CEO Hiroki Nakao. We were so happy he was patient enough to wait for our output. Then, we agreed to have it produced on the first working week of January so we had enough lead time before the Manila Coffee Festival. As my birthday is on January 1, I booked a flight to Osaka on New Year's Eve. I wanted to get all the blessings I can get by basking in the first rays of the year in the land of the rising sun.

On January 7, I met President Hiroki Nakao in the nearest station to his factory. As he drove me there, we gushed over our love of tenugui. When we arrived, it was surreal because I've only started collecting tenugui a year and half prior. It was a blessing to arrive at the "mecca" of tenugui so soon. I felt that I skipped the line to get VIP access. My first pinch me moment was meeting tenugui designer Adachi Sachi who makes designs based on the four seasons. Her packaging is both unique and cohesive. I couldn't believe she even gave me snacks for my Shinkansen Train to Nagano.

My second pinch me moment was seeing actual process done start to finish. My favorite step was the drying part as the tenugui was marvelously unraveled by a hook that takes it up to towering ceiling. I was simply dumbfounded watching a worker fix the cloth all the way up high. After, Nakao-san cut a piece of cloth from the long vine and gave the first Kasbang tenugui to me. It felt biblical because it was a signal that there was no turning back. The only path was forward. Soon, I had to wake up and ground myself in reality by saying "Matane" (See you) to the generous Hiroki Nakao-san. My next stop was four hours away to the snowy mountains of Nagano. The train ride wasn't long enough to process the dream I just had. It felt too fanastical but I knew it was real because I had the Kasbang tenugui wrapped around my neck like a gold medal.

Live feedback from Sagada and Tokyo on Facebook Messenger

Raw footage of Kasbang's Tenugui Process. It is a bit like ASMR. 🎵