Hello. As the heat has finally begun to ease, we hope you are all doing well.

This August, we traveled to Poznań, Poland, to take part in the 5th World Wicker & Weaving Festival 2023.
This marked the first time the festival has been held in four years, since 2019.

Considering the global pandemic and the continuing instability of recent years,
being able to attend this festival—normally held every four years—felt deeply moving.
The fact that it was able to take place as usual, and that we could participate, left a strong impression on us.

We are grateful that the organizers reached out to us many times,
expressing their hope that we would take part again this year.
However, to be honest, given the circumstances and the global situation,
I personally felt a great deal of hesitation about participating.

During that time, we decided to speak with Toshio Sasaki, a basket maker from Iwate who works with sawagurumi
and who had collaborated with us on a special exhibition at our shop last year.
When we invited him to consider joining this festival, his response was immediate: “I would love to go.”
Those words helped clear away my doubts, and as a result,
we were able to take part for the third time, following our previous visits in 2015 and 2019.

In this journal, we would like to report on the festival from our perspective as participants from Japan.
Updates will come gradually, but we hope that those who are interested will enjoy following along with us.

The World Wicker & Weaving Festival held in Poland takes the form of a live demonstration competition.
Over the course of two days, all participants gather at the venue and weave a single basket on site,
starting from raw materials and finishing it there for submission.

The completed works are evaluated by judges in each category, and in the end,
one overall Grand Prix winner is selected across all divisions.
It is a rare kind of event, where everyone enjoys one another’s skills and materials, shares time and conversation,
yet is also surrounded by a quiet sense of tension throughout.

Despite the current global situation, it seems that nearly sixty countries took part in this year’s festival as well.
For works that could not be completed within the two-day schedule, or for those who were unable to travel to Poland,
there is also a “submitted works” category, in which pieces are created in advance, sent to Poland, and entered for judging.

For us, this festival is not only a rare opportunity to see basketry from around the world gathered in one place,
but above all, it is about meeting people who are engaged in basket making across the globe,
and also about reuniting with those we have met before.

Throughout the venue, one can see woven works everywhere.
At the same time, participants themselves incorporate basketry into many aspects of their presence.

Both the indoor and outdoor venues featured monuments made from willow,
a material commonly used throughout Europe.

In a place like this, people connected to basketry are called together, gather, and weave baskets.
It is basketry everywhere—and everywhere, baskets, baskets, baskets.

Tomotake Ichikawa

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To be continued