Batik is a resist printing technique using wax, performed repeatedly to create exquisite and intricate designs, and has become familiar under the name of "Indonesian Sarasa" in Japan. Indonesia has long been an amalgam of more than 300 folk and ethnic groups each with their own unique cultures, languages, societies and ways of life, which became an even more diverse and rich society thanks to traffic with borrowed foreign cultures. Against this background of cultural diversity in the plurality of regions in Indonesia, unique batik styles intricately tied to the lives of each area have come about.
This exhibition gives a broad introduction to the history and appeal of batik, showcasing around 400 pieces from the wide collection of Masakatsu Totsu, a professor of Asian region studies at Kokushikan University. Welcoming 50 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries that began with the first royal emissaries and contemporary artists and researchers, batik reveals a rich vein of artistic endeavor through this medium that has been transmitted from generation to generation, and one that has been inherited by a new contemporary generation of Indonesian artists.
7 minute walk from Yoshikawakoen Station on the Chiba Urban Monorail, 10 minute walk from the East exit of Chibachuo Station on the Keisei line, 15 minute walk from the East exit of JR Chiba Station.
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