Reflections on art, memory, and cultural encounters across places
Wander in Fergana Valley: An Arts & Culture Guide
Follow the old caravan road through the Fergana Valley, where silk is woven by hand, potters guard a secret blue glaze, and a khan’s palace still stands.
Wander in Rishtan: The Glaze That Rose from Ash
Step into Rishtan, a town of potters, where red earth and a glaze made from wild shrub ash become Uzbekistan’s famous ishkor ceramics.
Wander in Margilan: Uzbekistan’s Silk Capital
In Margilan, silk begins as cocoons and is transformed into “royal silk” through generations of craftsmanship. Come meet the artisans behind the shimmering fabrics you see in bazaars across Uzbekistan.
Where the Sun Rises: A Wander Through the Okayama Orient Museum
More than 8,000 kilometres from Mesopotamia, in a city famous for its peaches, stands a fortress-like museum housing one of Japan’s most remarkable collections of ancient Oriental artefacts.
Wander in Nara: Making My Own Calligraphy Brush
I came to Nara to buy calligraphy brushes but ended up learning to make one, and discovered that Japan’s brush-making craft is said to have begun here, with a monk and a tuft of hair.
Guang Xing Paper Mill: Where Paper Is Still Made by Hand
In Puli, a town ringed by forests and mountain peaks, a workshop still makes paper the slow way: one sheet at a time.
Gripped by Ink: Kneading My Way Into Nara Sumi
Setting foot in the 150-year-old ink shop in Nara, I expected to get my hands dirty. Instead, I learned that my ink stick could outlive me by more than a thousand years.
Wandering Into Kyosai’s World: Master Painter, Satirist and Jester
Frogs playing the shamisen, skeletons in top hats, and a painter jailed for his jokes. Meet Kawanabe Kyosai, the eccentric 19th-century master whose humour still makes us laugh.
Finding Siddham: An Ancient Script Hidden in Japan’s Buddhist Temples
Born in India and travelled eastward with Buddhism, Siddham found an unexpected home in the temples of Japan, where this distinctive script has survived and continues to be practiced today.
When Artists Turned to Calligraphy: Kahitsukan’s “Calligraphy by Modern Artists”
Tucked away in Gion is Kahitsukan, a museum currently exhibiting works by 20th-century artists, none of them trained calligraphers, who brought their own sensibilities to the art of ink and brush.