小倉染色図案工房 小倉充子氏デザインのおぐら浴衣。
ホテル龍名館東京のために、ホテル龍名館東京に宿泊し、呉服橋の地をテーマにデザインしてもらった、オリジナルデザイン。
ホテル龍名館東京が面する外堀通りはかつて丸ノ内と外を隔てる大きな堀であり、現在の呉服橋交差点の場所に、呉服橋が架けられていた。幕府御用達の呉服商が沢山あったことから呉服橋の名が付いたと言われている。江戸城を中心とし、濠が多く見かけられる地域であったが、戦後に埋め立てられ、現在は交差点となり、その名前を残すのみとなっている。
ART RYUMEIKAN TOKYOでは、アーティストはもちろん、地域の価値を大切にすることを目的に、今回古き良き呉服橋、そしてその周辺の地域を、各文献を参考に小倉氏にデザインいただきました。また、老若男女問わない色やデザインは、小倉氏が実際にホテル龍名館東京に宿泊いただき、ホテルの空間にも合うものを製作いただいた。
この浴衣はホテル龍名館東京の客室に置いております。ご希望の方はご宿泊の際にリクエスト下さい。販売も行っております。
型染作家
1967年、三代続く神田神保町の履物屋「大和屋履物店」に生まれる。97年、「小倉染色図案工房」として独立。きもの、手ぬぐい、下駄の花緒、暖簾など、多様な型染め作品を制作する。
私は図案をつくる時、想いは必ず江戸の町へ飛ぶ。
ものつくりの端くれとして、また江戸っ子の末裔として、江戸の美学から学ぶことはあまりに多い。封建社会の抑制と不安の中で、それでも人には意気地があり、町には風が吹き、魂には自由があった。時代は流れ、人も町もすべてが変わってしまったけれど、魂は、細々とではあれ、脈々とこの東京に繋がっていると感じる。
そしてその魂を、ここ龍名館にも感じたのである。この度、龍名館の新しい浴衣の図案を制作するにあたり、所縁のモチーフでそれを描き出したいと思った。
龍名館付近より臨んだ在りし日の呉服橋御門に現在の日本橋。江戸の町並み。一石橋手前、呉服橋側の日本橋西河岸。江戸時代、日本橋川の両岸は河岸が設けられ、江戸物流の拠点として全国から荷が運ばれ、大変な賑わいであった。そして客人をもてなす御膳に酒に火鉢、煙草盆。町並みには旅人で賑わう旅籠龍名館を、御膳は花ごよみの会席料理を配し、洒落てみた。
この浴衣をまとった方に、江戸から龍名館へ吹いてくる風の匂いを、ふと感じて頂ければと思う。
Ogura Yukata, designed by Mitsuko Ogura of the Ogura Senshoku Zuan Kobo (Ogura Dyeing and Designing Studio)
Mitsuko Ogura designed this yukata (summer cotton kimono) exclusively for Hotel Ryumeikan Tokyo, staying at the hotel to get a feel for the design motif, which is a bridge called Gofukubashi that once stood in the Hotel’s neighborhood.
Sotobori Street, which Hotel Ryumeikan Tokyo faces, was once a large moat that separated the Marunouchi district from outlying areas. Gofukubashi spanned the moat at a point that is now Gofukubashi Crossing. The bridge was reportedly named Gofukubashi (literally, “kimono fabrics bridge”) because many kimono fabrics merchants who catered to the Tokugawa shogunate had their shops in this neighborhood. There used to be many moats in the area with Edo Castle (the Imperial Palace today) at the center. Most of them were reclaimed after World War II. As a result, the bridge called Gofukubashi disappeared and only its name remains as the name of a crossing.
In the ART RYUMEIKAN TOKYO project, we asked Ms. Ogura to create a yukata design featuring the original Gofukubashi and environs based on the literature, as a way to cherish community values as well as artists who lived in Edo (the former name for Tokyo). We asked her to actually stay overnight at Hotel Ryumeikan Tokyo so that she could produce a yukata with colors and design that would both appeal to men and women of all ages and match the interior of the hotel.
The guest rooms at Hotel Ryumeikan Tokyo are furnished with this yukata. Please ask for this light cotton kimono when you stay at the Hotel. We also have them available for sale.
Edo-style stencil dyeing artist.
Born in Kanda, Tokyo, in 1967.
Became an independent artist by setting up the Ogura Senshoku Zuan Kobo (Ogura Dyeing and Designing Studio) in 1997.
Performs virtually every process involved in stencil dyeing, such as designing, dye sinking and dyeing, herself.
My imagination flies to the city of Edo whenever I design.
As a minor craftswoman and a trueborn Tokyoite, I have so many things to learn from the aesthetic principles of artists who lived in Edo. People lived in this city with restraints and anxieties peculiar to a feudal society. But they had pride. The wind blew through their neighborhoods, too. They had a free spirit. The times have changed, and everything – including people and their neighborhoods – have changed also. Still, I feel that the spirit of Edo remains unbroken in our Tokyo, even if on a more modest scale.
I felt that spirit right here at Hotel Ryumeikan Tokyo, too. I wanted to depict the Edo spirit using a related motif on this latest assignment, which involved producing a new yukata design for the Hotel.
My design shows the Gofukubashi Gate of bygone days and the Nihonbashi district of the present day, viewed from a place near Hotel Ryumeikan Tokyo with the streets of Edo in the background. More precisely, I depicted a neighborhood west of the Nihonbashi Bridge on the side that featured Ikkokubashi Bridge and Gofukubashi Crossing. During the Edo period, fish markets were set up on both sides of the Nihonbashi River. This area thrived as a distribution base for Edo, with cargo arriving from all parts of Japan. I made the motif look appealing by arranging an individual dining table, sake, brazier and tobacco tray for guests, the Ryumeikan tavern crowded with travelers as a cityscape, and a Japanese set meal with a seasonal flower motif on the individual dining table.
I would be happy if this yukata helped people unexpectedly feel the breeze that blows from Edo to Hotel Ryumeikan Tokyo.
