Takeshi Arai & Noriyo Masuyama・・・  They met each other when they were attending Tokyo University of the Arts.  Later, they married in 1967.  Mr.Arai pursues his artistry in Dyeing Textile Art, and Ms. Masuyama works in Dyeing and Weaving Fabric Art - the two have inspired each other and kept  their careers active till today.

 

Mr.Arai taught  at Joshibi University of Art and Design as a professor of Textile Design until 2003, as he kept creating his own large scale textile art works.  From the 1990’s, he started producing modern Batik(Indonesian traditional wax-dyeing technique) works in his studio in Chiba, Japan and Bali, Indonesia.

 

Ms. Masuyama is not only producing her modern Ikat (Indonesian traditional weaving technique) art works, but has started traveling all over the European countries since the 1980’s to research European modern craft-art and art nouveau.  Since teh 1990’s, she has been traveling to Indonesian islands and West African countries to research primitive textile works among small local tribal.  In 2012, she donated more than 220 pieces of her Ikat collection to Toyama City Sato Memorial Museum, and the rare textile pieces are now in the museum’s permanent collection.