Shojono Tomo has set up some eye popping creations alongside other Japanese creators such as Takuya Angel and Suzuki Takayuki, for a new showing at the East Asian Museum in Stockholm OSTASIATISKAMUSEET

For more information, links and pictures of the displays and opening party check out Shojono Tomo's blog

A message from Shojono Tomo about her display...

HELLO THERE
I WENT TO STOCKHOLM FOR EXHIBITION.
I MADE 3KIMONO FOR 「OSTASIATISKAMUSEET] .
●TITLE："KIMONO FUSION".
●DAY　：From 13th of September 2009 - 8th of January 2010
●PLACE： EAST ASIAN MUSEUM IN STOCKHOLM 「OSTASIATISKAMUSEET]
OSTASIATISKAMUSEET
IF YOU CAN GO TO SWEDEN PLEASE CHECK IT HERE.

Child play 753
Shichi-go-san (7-5-3) is a Japanese traditional festival to celebrate the growth of children. It is generally held on November 15 th for boys of five and girls of three and seven.
Children of God until 7
‘Celebration for the children aged 7’, which represents that they are the children of God until they are 7, is one of the folk tales that has been handed down among people. Children aged under 7 are the spiritual beings with the grace of God.
They are spiritually unstable and apt to perish from some accident and disease.
Funerals are not served formally when they die.
After the celebration for the age of 7, they become grown-ups who hold a ceremony to pray to God. I wonder if people had this mysterious idea so that they might not feel sorrow for the death of their children. Was there anyone who really witnessed a child of God?
753 and the age of 7 are the key words that I try to unite thematically with my own subject on ‘ Soul of Adult Children’ to produce the gala dresses worn by those children under 7 who are waiting in readiness to become adults.

Children of God must excrete something out of their bodies to become men. I made an outlet for excretion with a plastic toy. The amount of excretion gets less and less as they become older from 3, 5, to 7. It is closed at the age of 7. Will kimonos for the children who cannot become adults by the age of 7 break open the outlet to expand again?
Japanese kimonos are patterned with straight rectangles with parts of shoulder and waist shorten with threads. They adjust kimonos by pulling out the threads so as to wear for years as they get old.
My kimono for a child aged 3 is the one which is made bigger in size by pulling out the threads.
This size- adjusting of kimono is like an air plastic toy that can be bigger by the air intake. The kimono with an air intake on may be comfortable for the Adult Children because they normally need larger clothes for their ages but they have child- sized mental. They can wear kimonos by adjusting the amount of air to their sizes.
I put an air intake on the place of the formal kimono where there should be a family crest to regulate the flow of soul by degrees from 3,5,to 7.
I show the meaning of 753 to be words for 3, wisdom for 5, and thanks to God for giving us teeth, that has been handed down from generation to generation among the natives.

Shojonotomo
Translation　by George Ushijima