The Rare Wool Objects Preserved in the Shōsōin Repository

Japan is well known for its gorgeous kimono silks and practice of sericulture, but has very little history of sheep herding and wool production, apart from small, private herds growing wool for hand-spinning and craft, and a market for meat for the "Genghis Khan" winter hot pot. In modern times, however, Japanese industry rivals that of countries like Italy and China in terms of the importation of various wool varieties for yarn and industrial felt production.

Japan was the eastern end of the Silk Road, and what caught Johnson’s eye even before arriving here were the rare felt rugs held in the Shōsōin Repository of the Imperial Household Agency in Nara. To this day, these remarkable mid-8th century Kasen felt rugs are objects the like of which can be found nowhere else on earth.

How Ethnic Felt Led Me Along the Silk Road to a Kasen

In 2011, Johnson was invited to join a research team focusing on the use of animal fibers in the Shōsōin collection such as found in calligraphy brushes, gigaku theatre masks, and rugs. Although the repository primarily holds objects produced in Japan, a small percentage of the exquisite works arrived 1300 years ago via international emissaries and travelers to the ancient capital. It is clear that although wool was still unknown to the general population at the time, those elite Japanese who encountered wool felt rugs were enthralled by them, their warmth, and the impressive Tang Dynasty floral patterning expressed in these large Kasen.

Johnson's responsibilities to the Imperial Household Agency included her practical scholarly research along the Silk Road to explain the elementary felt rug-making process, starting with the sampling of a variety of sheep breeds from China, Mongolia, Turkey and other countries across the continent. The same fat-tail breed of sheep from the mid-8th century that is still herded today has helped mankind survive by providing wool for shelter like yurts, as well as for shepherd’s cloaks, rugs, saddle blankets, hats, etc. while also providing cheese and meat for nourishment.

The second phase of the research involved the execution of the various design techniques that were used to achieve the popular floral motifs created during the Tang Dynasty. Johnson's studio completed three replica portions of Kasen no. 17 and installed an informative display and video at the Nara National Museum during “The 72nd Annual Exhibition of the Shōsōin Treasures” in 2020. Her team included two Japanese natural dyers, as well as her experienced students and was a wonderful project during the difficult Covid period.

Discovering the Modern Potential of Wool Felt

Johnson has lived in Kyoto for more than 30 years now thanks to the opportunities available to her for research, requests for university lectures and workshops, collaborations with designers, and gallery interest for solo exhibitions from Hokkaido down to Kyushu.

As the principal of JoiRae Textiles, Fushimi, Kyoto, her studio designs and produces by hand a wide range of wool felt items from body wear, hats and berets, scarves and accessories, to interior works such as table mats, rugs, as well as fine art pieces.

One of Johnson's specialties combines Swiss wool with skeletal leaf and vegetal matter. Typically, factories strive to remove accumulated foreign matter in a fleece during processing but Johnson likes to replace it to achieve an interesting surface effect and to reflect the environment in which the sheep live each day. Sheep grow with their legs in the soil and grasses, and of course have their own skin, so Johnson feels that felt is compatible with various materials, for example pottery, which is made from mud, as the vibrations of the materials complement each other in interesting ways.

Unlike weaving (and its interlacing of warp and weft threads) and knitting (which uses a looping construction), felt making is not limited to a rectangular form: free-form shaping of the fibers can be done during the shrinking process or migration stages. Add some flax and kudzu fibers, and wild silk to natural color and vegetal-dyed wool and something magical happens, especially if you have a wonderful ceramic Sake set nearby and your venue is a classic mud-walled, tatami-mat room…Her series of interior works strive to add organic materials that provide a warm contrast to a modern glass and stone interior surrounding as well.

When Materials Present a Dialogue

Three collaborations with other artists exemplify the combining of distinct handmade wool felt with other materials, like leather and Japanese Urushi lacquer. These stitched handbags produced by the talented Kyoto designer Asayo Takeda show innovative forms and a fascinating dialogue between the materials and techniques used.

The Tokyo shoe designer and owner of Belpasso Art & Craft of Shoes, Kyoko Sasage, invited Johnson to help create durable color-blended felt for leggings that would complement anyone’s shoe collection. They include a stretchable suede section to achieve easy pull-on winter wear.

The use of felt together with Japanese Urushi lacquer in the vessel series produced with the American furniture maker Clifton Monteith creates a rich dialogue between felt's matte surface and the lacquer's smooth sheen. While Monteith was on a Fulbright Fellowship in Kyoto, he mentioned to Johnson that he was looking for a protein to which he could apply Urushi, and was thinking of materials like shell or wood. But Johnson's understanding of felt meant that she knew that Japanese lacquer would be a viable option that could be directly applied to the inner surface and rim of the felt structure of the vessels. This was an international first and now that experiment is housed in the collection of several museums. Just imagine during a tea ceremony held on a cold winter's day, how a lacquered felt tea bowl offers both warmth and a unique sensory experience.

What the Wool Fiber Has to Teach Us

Internationally, Johnson is known as a contemporary textile artist, and a noted educator in the field of wool and traditional felt-making histories and techniques of the Silk Road. In December 2025, she was invited to return to speak and conduct a workshop at the Biennale of Natural Dyes (BoND 4) at the China National Silk Museum, Hangzhou. Her theme was the direct application to silk fabric of the natural black color of Sumi ink, which is a familiar material in China and Japan. The silk fabric was then laminated to layers of wool during the shrinking process, which allows airy fabrics to be drawn into the matrix of the felt. By using a resist pattern and placing fibers on both sides of it, it is also possible to create a seamless garment. Johnson likes to introduce to the visitors and her clients coming to her exhibitions what the capabilities of the migrating wool fiber can demonstrate.

It is hard to understand the felt-making technique without some experience with wool, but if you have ever machine-washed a wool sweater and shrunk it in the process, that gives you some insight into the craft. It can perhaps also be likened to ceramics, and the seamlessness of the connection of a spout and a handle on a teapot and how the clay is calculated to shrink to a degree in the kiln.

The Treasure Trove at the End of the Rainbow

Johnson believes in expression through artistic approaches, and in techniques honed through professional craftsmanship, and finds that the traditional art/craft form of felt making allows the two to meet without one overwhelming the other. In the cases of clothing and footwear, obviously they must fit, must be functional, must perform, and that makes such items more difficult to compose and facilitate. But a fine art work is allowed a more poetic approach, with the use of delicate motif elements such as the aforementioned skeletal leaves, Washi paper, leftover fabric remnants, etc., and, a perhaps more lightly fulled fabric that allows light to permeate the felt.

When people ask about her profession, Johnson sometimes answers, “I make items to keep you from catching cold and to make you look hot!” This warm humor pervades her work, together with a deep understanding throughout the agitation, migration and shrinking process of the capabilities and gifts of the unique animal fiber that is wool.

While Boston introduced Johnson to the sustainability and security that sheep wool can provide, and Finland was the epitome of survival by wool for the Scandinavians, and the Shōsōin Repository in Nara emphasized the nation's status as the eastern end of the Silk Road, Kyoto for Johnson is the “a pot of gold” full of the variety of marvelous textiles at the end of the rainbow of the Asian continent. Perhaps that is why Johnson is still enjoying and engaging in Japan.