Kawagoe City “Flying Geese” Kimono Project was featured on TV Saitama!

Kawagoe City celebrated its 100th anniversary on December 1. As part of various anniversary projects, a large picture drawn by citizens in May this year was reborn as something new.

In May this year, a giant artwork was created in an effort to bring back the vitality of the town and its citizens, whose activities had been restricted by the Corona disaster and whose interaction with each other had decreased. A large cloth 3.5 meters long and 10 meters wide was prepared. Citizens drew the wings of the city bird “geese” with their handprints, and together with Tomoko Matsuoka, a contemporary artist from Kawagoe City, they created a single work of art.

More than 500 people participated in the project, which was planned by the city’s Junior Chamber of Commerce and others. After its completion, Ms. Matsuoka talked about his thoughts on this artwork in a program she appeared in.

The artwork was later exhibited at the Kawagoe City Art Museum, but the Junior Chamber of Commerce of the city, which hosted the event, started a new project to see if they could make further use of this artwork created by Ms. Matsuoka and the citizens. That is the “Wild Goose Painting Kimono Project. They started a project to convert the cloth with geese painted on it into kimonos that can be worn in daily life.

Of course, the tailoring is done by Japanese tailors in Kawagoe City.

There were some difficulties in tailoring the cloth which was not the fabric for kimono. We changed the sleeves and the parts to be used from the tailored kimono, and adjusted the position of the goose’s face and the use of colors, etc., while listening to the thoughts for the art.

As we consulted with each other, we decided to make an obi from a picture of a wild goose, which we had initially thought of as a ready-made obi. After repeated trial fitting and revisions, the kimono was finally completed and unveiled at a city art event held in October prior to the 100th anniversary. In addition to a dialogue between the members of the production team, a video was shown to convey the concept and the thoughts of the people involved in this project to the public. The goose painted kimono was completed with the cooperation of many generations in Kawagoe, which celebrated its 100th anniversary.

Ms. Matsuoka looks back on this project and hopes that this experience will be used for future community development.

The completed kimono will be used to promote the town of Kawagoe, including being worn by Ms. Matsuoka in his live painting overseas, and was displayed at the 100th anniversary ceremony today.

According to the Kawagoe Junior Chamber of Commerce, which sponsored the project, the city plans to make use of the property in the future by renting it out to citizens upon request.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWFwyTPjOh0