Traditional Textile Design for Social Innovation Toward Sustainability in Japan

Japanese local textiles are too traditional to fit in our time, however they are all earth-friendly materials those of which are significant for the sustainable society in our future. In this paper, possibilities of re-designing traditional textiles made of natural fiber are explored with local weavers at Okinawa and Nagano in Japan. Talking with craftsmen from local communities I realized that not only current issues of textile techniques and products but also those of local communities and environment should be discussed and solved at the same time. Also, I realized that activities and creativities of young generations are necessary to solve problems. With people from local communities, students and my colleague, Yuka Kawai at Tama Art University, I have started to carry out a project, re-designing traditional textiles for social innovation toward sustainability since last year. In this paper, several progress of the project will be presented, and also social background of local textile productions in Japan will be analyzed