Japanese photographer Rinko Kawauchi has captured a serene and timeless scene as silk-weaver Sonoko Saskia kneels while she spins silk floss into yarn on her spinning wheel. Sonoko’s traditional kimono and spinning wheel hark back to the past, yet she makes her raw silk, known as “pongee,” today.
Sonoko uses traditional methods. She makes dyes from leaves and grasses to color her yarn, and then she uses the tsumugi-ori weaving technique that utilizes discarded silkworm cocoons to make her cloth.
Award-winning Japanese photographer Rinko Kawauchi’s exhibition “The Ateliers of Wonders, 2020” is now on display in the Cypress Cloister, as part of “Homo Faber Event 2022” at the Giorgio Cini Foundation in Venice, Italy. (Rinko Kawauchi/Michelangelo Foundation)
Sonoko is one of the 12 Japanese artisans that Rinko photographed at work in their ateliers for her photography series “The Ateliers of Wonders, 2020.”  The 12 artisans are Living National Treasures, a lifetime honor awarded to artisans by the Japanese government since World War II to protect and preserve the country’s traditions. There are only 116 award recipients, each one gets an annual stipend, and artisans can only make the list once someone listed dies.
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