was a Japanese textile designer. In 1956, he was designated as a Living National Treasure

Living National Treasure (Japan)

is a Japanese popular term for those individuals certified as by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology as based on Japan's...

 for his katazome

Katazome

Katazome is a Japanese method of dyeing fabrics using a resist paste applied through a stencil. With this kind of resist dyeing, a rice flour mixture is applied using a brush or a tool such as a palette knife. Pigment is added by hand-painting, immersion or both...

stencil

Stencil

A stencil is a thin sheet of material, such as paper, plastic, or metal, with letters or a design cut from it, used to produce the letters or design on an underlying surface by applying pigment through the cut-out holes in the material. The key advantage of a stencil is that it can be reused to...

 dyeing

Dyeing

Dyeing is the process of adding color to textile products like fibers, yarns, and fabrics. Dyeing is normally done in a special solution containing dyes and particular chemical material. After dyeing, dye molecules have uncut Chemical bond with fiber molecules. The temperature and time controlling...

 technique by the Japanese government. Serizawa visited Okinawa several times and learned the Ryūkyū bingata

Bingata

Bingata is an Okinawan traditional resist dyed cloth, made using stencils and other methods. It is generally bright-colored and features various patterns, usually depicting natural subjects such as fish, water, and flowers...

techniques of dyeing. Serizawa was also a leading member of the mingei

Mingei

', the Japanese folk art movement, was developed in the late 1920s and 1930s in Japan. Its founding father was Yanagi Sōetsu .-Origins:In 1916, Yanagi made his first trip to Korea out of a curiosity for Korean crafts...

movement founded by Yanagi Sōetsu

Yanagi Soetsu

, also known as Yanagi Muneyoshi, was a Japanese philosopher and founder of the mingei movement in Japan in the late 1920s and 1930s.-Life:In 1916, Yanagi made his first trip to Korea out of curiosity about Korean crafts...

. His folk art includes kimono

Kimono

The is a Japanese traditional garment worn by men, women and children. The word "kimono", which literally means a "thing to wear" , has come to denote these full-length robes...

, paper prints, wall scrolls, folding screens, curtains, fans and calendars. Serizawa has also produced numerous masterpieces in illustrated books including Don Quixote, Vincent van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh

Vincent Willem van Gogh , and used Brabant dialect in his writing; it is therefore likely that he himself pronounced his name with a Brabant accent: , with a voiced V and palatalized G and gh. In France, where much of his work was produced, it is...

and A Day at Mashiko. In 1981, the Municipal Serizawa Keisuke Art Museum was opened in the city of Shizuoka

Shizuoka, Shizuoka

is the capital city of Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan, and the prefecture's second-largest city in terms of both population and area. It became one of Japan's 19 "designated cities" in 2005.-Geography:...

. Another museum, the Serizawa Keisuke Art and Craft Museum was opened in 1989 in Sendai

Sendai, Miyagi

is the capital city of Miyagi Prefecture, Japan, and the largest city in the Tōhoku Region. In 2005, the city had a population of one million, and was one of Japan's 19 designated cities...

.

“The distinguishing trait of Serizawa’s katazome method is the use of the starch mixture to create, not a colored area as is current in direct-dyeing process, but a blank, undyed one that forms a part of the pattern and that can later be colored by hand in multi-color or monochrome as the designer sees fit.”

External links

• Tohoku Fukushi University Serizawa Keisuke Art and Craft Museum in Japanese
• Shizuoka City Serizawa Keisuke Art Museum in Japanese