Noriko Tsuiki

Noriko Tsuiki is a Japanese textile artist and weaver, best known for reviving the lost tradition of Kokura-ori. She is the president of Yuh Textile Studio and a regular member of the Japan Art Crafts Association. Her works are held in major museum collections including the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Biography

Tsuiki was born in 1952 in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka Prefecture.
She studied at the School of Letters, Arts and Sciences, Waseda University, leaving in 1974 to pursue dyeing and weaving independently. She studied tsumugi-ori and kimono making in Kumejima, the Shinshu region, and other areas.
In 1984 she successfully revived the dormant Kokura-ori tradition, followed by the revival of Kokura-chijimi in 1994.
In 1996, she was selected as a trainee for successors to traditional crafts under Takeshi Kitamura, a recognized Living National Treasure. That same year, the Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art held a solo exhibition of her work.

Career and exhibitions

Tsuiki has held numerous solo exhibitions in Japan and abroad, including:

1996 – Noriko Tsuiki Textile Exhibition, Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art
1999, 2003, 2013, 2021 – Noriko Tsuiki Textile Exhibition, Wako Hall, Ginza, Tokyo
2004 – Cool & Light: New Spirit in Craft Making, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
2005 – Wings of Cicada, London
2007 – Artist residency in London, sponsored by the Agency for Cultural Affairs
2012 – Giappone. Terra di incanti, Museo degli Argenti, Florence
2014 – Noriko Tsuiki – Stripes Today, Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art
2016 – Parabolic Stripes, Milan Design Week
2022 – The rebirth of Kokura Ori: The Beauty of Stripes, Matsuya Ginza, Tokyo

She continues to exhibit regularly, including at the annual Japan Art Crafts Exhibitions and the Fukuoka Prefectural Art Exhibition.

Awards

Tsuiki has received numerous awards for her contributions to textile arts, including:

2005 – Prize for Excellence, 25th Pola Traditional Japanese Culture Awards
2008 – Excellence Award of the Commissioner for Cultural Affairs
2010 – Grand Prize, Asahi Shimbun
2012 – Fukuoka Prefectural Cultural Prize
2015 – 1st Kikuchi Kanjitsu Award
2018 – Regional Person of Cultural Merit Award, Agency for Cultural Affairs of Japan
2022 – Mitsui Golden Takumi Award, Special Recognition Award

Work

Tsuiki is renowned for her revival of Kokura stripes, a cotton fabric once produced in Kokura for over 350 years until it disappeared in the early Shōwa period. Traditionally used for samurai hakama and obi, Kokura-ori is distinguished by vertical stripes created with warp threads at three times the density of the weft, producing a strong, smooth, and lustrous fabric.
In 1984, she revived Kokura-ori as a handwoven art textile. Since 2007, she has also directed the development of machine-woven Kokura fabrics under the brand KOKURA SHIMA-SHIMA, extending the traditional craft to wide-width fabrics suitable for fashion and interiors. These textiles have been used by interna