Tucked away in a Minokamo City workshop located in Gifu prefecture Japan, a father and daughter team repair damaged clothing using "kaketsugi", an "invisible mending" technique that uses a needle, thread and craftmanship so fine that virtually no trace of repair is visible. Kataoka Tesshu began to hone his skills over 40 years ago, eventually passing on the hard earned lessons to his daughter Yoshiko Goto, who demonstrates her artistry in the video below:
Originally the Oriwa Giken workshop was a tailor shop for "order-made" clothing, however the ascendency of relatively inexpensive "ready-made" clothing led to it's closure; spurring Kataoka Tesshu to hone his kaketsugi technique, by dedicating all his energy into studying the intricate warp and weft of fabrics to create new ways to repair damaged garment. Frequently, master level artistry comes at a cost, and Kataoka Tesshu bluntly admits "I was desperate back then, I didn't have time for my children. I rarely went to their sports day or other school events. I regret it to this day. I wish I could've been there for them." For a quick look into the father and daughter team at Oriwa Giken, see the video below:
Yoshiko Goto's skills and innovations eventually outshone her father's, extending to finer fabrics like t-shirts and complicated processed fabrics. For a full length video of the condensed video above, see NHK World-Japan's video and story here at NHK World.
