Cooper Hewitt says...
Junichi Arai, an important innovator in 20th century textiles, was born in 1932 in Kiryu, a city that has been an important center for textile production in Japan for four centuries. As the sixth generation of a mill-owning family, Arai grew up with fabrics being woven for obis and kimonos. He maintains a deep reverence for traditional weaving techniques and the capabilities that only the hand can provide in the craft of making fabrics. In 1984 he founded Nuno Corporation, a company and retail store that produces and sells innovative functional fabrics. Though his work is very technically innovative, Arai takes a traditional approach with his company by employing local craftspeople to help create his work. He has expanded the potential of a jacquard loom, explored reflective surfaces using polyester slit yarn, developed new interpretations of age-old techniques such as ikat and shibori (tie-dye), and exploited the thermoplastic memories of synthetic fibers to give flat fabrics and third dimension. Because of his extensive work, Arai holds patents on 36 processes.
