Photo: Nic Castellanos
Yoshiko Iwamoto Wada
Shibori (Japanese shaped-resist dyeing)
Yoshiko Iwamoto Wada is an internationally renowned artist, curator, textile researcher, and advocate for traditional and sustainable practices in fashion and textile production. Widely regarded as one of the world’s leading scholars and educators in textile arts, she is credited with introducing the Japanese art of shibori to the United States. She is the author of Shibori: The Inventive Art of Japanese Shaped Resist Dyeing, Memory on Cloth: Shibori Now, and Ikat: An Introduction, foundational texts in the field of textile studies.
Yoshiko is the Founder and President of the World Shibori Network and has co-chaired all twelve International Shibori Symposia since 1992, fostering global exchange among artists, scholars, and tradition bearers. Her contributions have been recognized with numerous honors, including designation as a Distinguished Craft Educator – Master of Medium by the James Renwick Alliance of the Smithsonian Institution, Honorary Fellow of the American Craft Council, and the George Hewitt Myers Award for Lifetime Achievement.
She has served as a consultant to costume designers, including for the film Memoirs of a Geisha, and her artwork has been exhibited at institutions such as the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery and the International Textile Fair in Kyoto. In 2025, Yoshiko completed her doctoral dissertation on the aesthetics of Japanese boro textiles at the University of Leicester’s School of Museum Studies.
World Shibori Network Foundation
World Shibori Network Instagram
Apprenticeship Program
2025
Tanya Lieberman will deepen her practice in traditional Japanese shibori through focused apprenticeship training under the mentorship of Yoshiko Wada. This apprenticeship centers on preserving and promoting shaped-resist dyeing techniques—such as arashi (pole wrapping), itajime (folding), nui (stitching), and kumo/kanoko (binding)—alongside the preparation and use of sukumo indigo dye, a fermented dyeing process rarely practiced outside of Japan. The apprentice will develop skills in fiber selection, surface design, traditional tools, and cultural traditions associated with shibori and indigo dyeing. The apprenticeship culminates in a public exhibition of the work created and a community-based shibori workshop, supporting the transmission of this art form to a new generation within the Japanese American community and beyond.
