Misaki

Misaki loves to wander around the forest alone with her own thoughts...but she's not truly alone. She can hear the thoughts of the wind as it whispers among the trees like a friend's stories, feel the touch of the sunlight piercing through sun-dappled canopies like a loved one's embrace and taste the sweet scent of the flowers like a treat given by a friend. She seems a little too shy and quiet but her tiny cat mask gives away the childlike demeanor everybody wants her to hide. She is her own person and that is enough to make her feel free.

"Briefly like spring time,

I have come, but I will go.

Life is too fleeting."

Tora

She is named Tora. To defend one's land is her duty and it takes up too much of her time. Sometimes she wonders if it was better to have been an ordinary person, tilling farm or making rice, singing songs with her friends and eating with her family at the dinner table. But this is the life that she's been given. She is grateful, but she feels her days and her nights are too short -- life is but similar to the passing of sakura blossoms. She will never know just when the blades or the arrows of her enemies will end her days. In this she feels sorrow but also gratitude -- to die for your people and your country is enough to make the hardship and unpredictability of warfare easier to overcome.

Growing up with six older brothers, all Hagumi wanted was to fit right in with the guys. She took up arms and fought in the skirmishes along with them. But that was only in her wildest of dreams. She's stuck feeding the chickens and cooking dinner at home. Not that she hated doing all the women's work, but she longed for adventure... sans the killing. One day she was forced to do what she had imagined doing -- she must fight to protect her brothers' innocence. Oh great, I was just joking, she thought nervously. Well, I could handle a broom so why not a spear? She's quite sure she could do it. After all those daydreams and watching numerous training and sparring with the scarecrow, she could survive the battlefield, right?

She loves to stay by the garden as the sun shines down on the blooms and ferns, feeling the tender warmth of it embracing her like a familiar hug. 

Embroidery has always been a part of my days ever since I was a child. There are countless cross stitches and crochets that my mum made each day at home under golden sunlit and breezy days, and over at my grandmother's house there would be the dresses she makes with my uncle for clients, even for me and my cousins. We have lots of threads at home and even lots of beads and needles. I was, and still am enamored by the simple beauty of needle, fabric and thread.

I tried to create something similar to the art that my loved ones made when I was about 7 or 8-- I did a cross stitch piece following some of my mum's patterns but it didn't turn out as wonderful as theirs or in short, I wasn't any good with the patience that came with embroidery. 

A few years ago though, I started making friendship bracelets as a hobby. And then, just a few days ago, I had this simple yet remarkable feeling that I just had to create something with threads. I couldn't shake the feeling of excitement. And to make it even more thrilling for me, I stumbled upon a beautiful and helpful vintage sewing book that covered just about anything I wanted to know and more -- my mum was especially thrilled to see new crochet patterns and embroidery techniques. I just had started sketching ideas of what to sew and dove right in the embroidery days that I spent patiently and calmly beside my mother who was sewing a huge cross stitch piece of kois swimming in the water. I was immediately filled with the same kind of love and bliss that I felt during my childhood days as I watched my mother create anything with her needle and thread, even my doll's clothes and my very own apron. 

I feel like I am part of this huge tapestry, or a warm and cozy quilt made of the threads that connect my loved ones to me with all the threads and fabrics they used. And I feel... happy. 

So then I decided to go with the honey bee, a sweet and humble being that has always tickled my imagination. This is the first time I did an embroidery. It seemed tricky at first, especially planning the design and what kind of technique should I use, but the moment I started sewing, it felt like I have always been doing this for a long time now. Although I had pierced my fingers with the sharp needle lots of times, it wasn't unpleasant, it was just something that was part of the process of calm and patience. 

I have found the kind of needle and thread art that truly speaks to my being that involves the kind of hard work and creativity that connects me with my loved ones, especially my mother. She's really happy to be sewing with me. Now though, the fabric does not change from pristine white to a muddy one as I always did way back in those days...though just a few creases here and there. But we are happy. And that is what matters. 

The smell of the cold wind permeated the air, while the golden light of the afternoon sun was beautifully glowing on the leaves, the pavements, on busy feet and falling upon breathless, captivated lips.