Wings of the Cicada: textiles and kimono by Takeshi Kitamura and the Usuhata Group

In 1972, a garment made of a gauze-like cloth, known as ra, was discovered at an archaeological excavation in Southern China. Woven from silk, ra is a delicate material and was highly prized in ancient China; few examples of it have survived. The ra garment was included in a touring exhibition of Chinese artefacts in Japan and one of the people to see it was Takeshi Kitamura. He was profoundly moved by it and began his own experiments to rediscover the lost knowledge of how to weave ra. After several years of study and experimentation, he finally succeeded. For this achievement, he was honoured by the Japanese government as a Living National Treasure (Important Intangible Cultural Property) in 1995.

 In 1996, Kitamura held a series of workshops for ten weavers, studying the techniques of ra at his studio in Kyoto. After the workshops came to an end, the members decided to continue studying weaving together with Kitamura as their leading member. Each weaver in this group had already established their own technique and style, but now they started to experiment with the possibilities of ra. Their collaboration led to a joint exhibition in 2001 under the group name of Usuhata (‘the thin gauze cloth’).

 ‘Wings of the Cicada’ brought work by the eleven weavers of the Usuhata Group to the UK for the first time.