From June 8 to 18, 2017, students and professors of textile from Tokyo University of the Arts (Tokyo Geidai), Kyoto City University of Arts, Kanazawa College of Art, and Tsinghua University Academy of Arts & Design, China, jointly held an exhibition of textile arts at Tokyo Geidai’s Chinretsukan Gallery.

The origin of this event dates back to some years ago. In 2014, Tokyo Geidai’s textile arts studio held a joint exhibition and symposium with Tsinghua University Academy of Arts & Design at Tsinghua University for the first time. In the previous year, Tokyo Geidai started to collaborate with Kyoto City University of Arts and Kanazawa College of Art to organize annual exhibitions. So far, the three Japanese universities have carried out three joint exhibitions at different locations each year, which exhibited unique pieces created by selected students of the three universities, with a shared objective of pursuing the possibilities of traditional textiles and their contemporary expressions. In 2017, the three Japanese and one Chinese universities came together to hold this international exhibition, with the aims of presenting the current situations of textile arts in Japan and China from their respective standing points, and seeking future perspectives for the field.

Japan and China have nurtured their own culture of textile while influencing each other. Furthermore, both countries have contributed to the development of the textile and dyeing techniques in Asia. It is therefore highly significant that the two countries make proposals for the future of textile arts.

As part of the event, a symposium was held in addition to a conventional showing of exhibits. It aimed to provide young, prospective artists with a place to meet and work with their colleagues beyond national borders, and help them deepen their understanding of each other’s culture and acknowledge the difference of belief and artistic sense, which will eventually allow the two countries keep on evolving. We made a big step in this regard, by understanding each other’s the educational policy, curriculum, environment, and facilities. Each of us reflected on our own educational content, found commonalities with the other universities, and firmly agreed on taking initiatives in this field.

We believe that new perspectives will be brought by interaction beyond countries, regions, or institutions, which will play a significant role not only for students but in the field of textile arts. We would like to continue to hold this type of event, where we will further discuss the issue of tradition and innovation to provide more quality education, so that we will be able to build the base for nurturing globally recognized artists.