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00:09 These gorgeously embroidered balls are known as temari.
00:16 Originally, temari were children's toys.
00:22 Young women and girls used them in games of handball.
00:29 They're usually decorated with flower or animal motifs.
00:32 Today, temari are popular as decorations.
00:36 Each region of Japan has its own distinctive tradition.
00:40 Takematsu is a city in Kagawa on Shikoku Island.
00:44 Practised here by women for almost a thousand years,
00:48 the local tradition is called sanuki kagari temari.
00:52 Making a temari begins with the core.
00:58 At the centre are rice husks wrapped in paper.
01:02 Cotton yarn is wound around the centre to build up a base ball.
01:07 Then the pattern is laid out using pins and thread as guidelines.
01:13 In this simple pattern, the ball is first divided into eight segments.
01:19 Patterns can be incredibly complicated, but they're all constructed by hand.
01:24 To create a pattern, the thread is passed under both the guidelines and the yarn of the base ball.
01:29 This will be repeated many times, adding layers one by one.
01:34 Eiko Araki is a temari artist.
01:44 Originally a jewellery designer, she chose this craft nearly 30 years ago.
01:51 In this area, we traditionally use only plant dyes to colour our yarn.
01:56 I think making the temari with naturally dyed cotton gives them an especially warm, friendly feeling.
02:03 Sanuki kagari temari's distinctive feature is the use of natural plant dyes.
02:10 Cotton is hard to colour using natural dyes, but they developed a special method here,
02:18 soaking the cotton in boiled, mashed soybeans makes it more absorbent.
02:23 For red dyes, the colour comes from madder root.
02:29 The intensity of the hue depends on how long the yarn is soaked.
02:35 There are over 140 colour variations.
02:43 It's these many subtle colour gradations that make Sanuki kagari temari so warmly appealing.
02:49 I want my temari to give you the impression that you're walking on the clouds,
02:56 over fields covered with flowers, with little blooms everywhere.
03:02 Here, Araki has chosen a very simple common flower to create a charming effect of many tiny blossoms opening.
03:12 She uses only pale shades for her temari, which is quite unusual.
03:17 Here, she's gone even further, abandoning colour altogether
03:25 and relying for contrast on subtle natural variations in white between batches of yarn
03:30 to capitalise on the cotton texture.
03:36 Araki's energetic example has attracted many others to take up temari art.
03:41 Takamatsu now has nearly 100 women using this old craft to express themselves creatively.
03:49 It's deceptively simple to make. What I really love is arranging the colours.
03:55 When I make temari, I'm trying to do two things.
03:59 To keep this old tradition alive, and also to take it in new directions.
04:05 This is a lovely, uniquely Japanese handicraft, and I want to teach the world about it.
04:10 Handed down over the centuries from mother to daughter,
04:14 Sanuki kagari temari adds a colourful natural warmth to any home.
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