30 Facts About Michiko Yamawaki

Michiko Yamawaki, was a Japanese designer and textile artist who trained at the Bauhaus.

Michiko Yamawaki was one of four Japanese students to study at the Bauhaus in Dessau, studying drawing, weaving, and typography.

Michiko Yamawaki was born in the 43rd year of the Meiji in Tsukiji, a district of Chuo, Tokyo, as the oldest daughter of Zengoro Yamawaki, a Urasenke tea ceremony master.

Michiko Yamawaki married photographer and architect Iwao Yamawaki in Japan in 1928; as she was a heiress and the eldest daughter of an important family, he was asked to adopt her family name, which he did - in exchange, the family financially supported both of their studies at the Bauhaus.

Michiko Yamawaki himself produced some of the vessels used for the ceremony.

Young Michiko Yamawaki became the heiress to a portion of the family wealth when her uncle died prematurely.

Michiko Yamawaki helped them to find an apartment in Dessau, about a four hours' drive from Berlin.

Michiko Yamawaki began her studies with Vorkurs, or preliminary courses, which included modules on materials, abstract composition and design, as well as mathematics, physics, and gymnastics.

At the Bauhaus, Michiko Yamawaki engaged in studies under Albers, Kandinsky, and Joost Schmidt.

Michiko Yamawaki recalls in her writing Josef Albers being particularly kind and that his lectures in the preparatory course were the most interesting.

At Bauhaus, Michiko Yamawaki discovered parallels between traditional Japanese tea culture, and the Bauhaus philosophy of aesthetics and craft.

In particular, Michiko Yamawaki found that the material properties, simplicity, and function of objects were treated as equally important in both realms.

Michiko Yamawaki described her studies a re-entered the world of tea that she knew intimately from her childhood.

Michiko Yamawaki designed the textile section of this exhibit, as well as the design for the "Bauhaus Textile Exhibition" held in Tokyo in 1933.

The Yamawakis rented the third floor and half of the fifth floor, where the two looms were placed, which Michiko used as her workshop.

Michiko Yamawaki published her memories of the Bauhaus in the book Bauhaus to chanoyu, edited by Naomichi Kawahata, in which she gave a detailed insight into the Bauhaus, as well as the world of moboga in Tokyo in the 1930s.

In May 1933 the wife of Sadanosuke Nakada, the yoga painter Yoshie Nakada, curated Michiko Yamawaki's solo show Yamawaki Michiko Bauhausu teorimono koten at the Shiseido Gallery, which primarily showcased Michiko's textile work.

Michiko Yamawaki added to the display some products and jewellery from the Bauhaus metal workshop.

Michiko Yamawaki wrote in her book that although most of the time, as an iconic moga, she wore a European style outfit, she chose to wear a kimono with a wisteria design for the exhibition opening.

Michiko Yamawaki became the head of the weaving course and her colleague Shizuko Kageyama became head of western fashion design.

Michiko Yamawaki taught a three-hour class once a week and the course lasted three and a half months.

From 1934 Michiko Yamawaki again used the portable loom when she started teaching textile design at the Jiyu gakuen school, run by progressive women's educator and publisher Hani Motoko.

Images of the Michiko Yamawaki's Tokyo home show a modernist villa that is an interpretation of a Central European modernist house.

Since the late 1930s, Michiko Yamawaki had been involved in the forming of a nationalistic image of Japanese women.

Beneath the glamorous modern image of the couple, Iwao remained, Michiko Yamawaki thought, a very traditional Japanese husband.

Michiko Yamawaki did not disappear entirely from the public eye, but focused on the family lifestyle both from a modern, and a woman's, perspective.

Michiko Yamawaki promoted the beauty or aesthetics of and in daily life, which she called Seikatsu bigaku.

Michiko Yamawaki noted that at the opening celebration she was mistaken for Chieko Higashiyama, an actress famous from the films of Yasujiro Ozu.

Michiko Yamawaki wrote that the Gropiuses had a lovely time with them in Komaba, sitting in the Wassily chairs in their living room.

Walter Gropius noticed some details that were executed in the Bauhaus style, but with a Japanese touch, perhaps in a manner similar to how Michiko Yamawaki felt Japanese-ness in the atmosphere at the Bauhaus while she was a student.