Naoko NOGUCHI 野口菜穂子
Artist name: Atelier de Tsumami Zaiku ”Hana”
つまみ細工『葉菜工房』
https://tsumamizaikunaokon.wixsite.com/my-site
Instagram : naokonoguchi77
Since I was young I liked to make something by hand, I remember I often enjoyed making something at home when I was a kid.
After getting married I moved out of Japan and for 11 years I lived in France, Ivory Coast, Belgium. And from September 2023, I just started my new life in Versailles in France!
I was born and grew up in Tokyo, Sumida-ku which is close to Asakusa.
Asakusa is one of the famous tourist towns in Tokyo, which has a temple called “Senso-ji” and the town still has the traditional atmosphere of Japan. I always like the town and the atmosphere! I think Japanese traditional stuff and cultures were next to me from when I was a kid.
Reasons you applied the teacher’s certification
I met Tusmami-zaiku for the first time in summer of 2018. As soon as I took the first lesson, I started to like it. After I took the 5 basic lessons in Japan I needed to go back to Ivory Coast where I used to live at the time. In Ivory Coast I was making some accessories with the Tsumami-zaiku technique using African fabrics.
And then I moved to Belgium in 2021, I learnt Tsumami-zaiku again using craft glue method with one of the Japanese Tsumami-zaiku organizations, now I am the certified teacher of the organization too. But I still wanted to learn the Tsumami-zaiku technique with the starch glue method since I knew that this is the traditional technique which has existed for over 200 years and to know the traditional method was necessary for me. From overseas it was very difficult to find the opportunity to learn the traditional method of Tsumami-zaiku but finally I found ITA! After I took all the lessons from ITA, I found myself to have a wider and deeper knowledge of Tsumami-zaiku.
Now I am very much looking forward to introducing the beautiful culture of Tsumami-zaiku and the technique here in France.