Hidden Wonders

Patricia founded Okan Arts—a family business that imports vintage Japanese textiles. Inspired by these found fabrics, Patricia incorporates hand-dyed yukata cottons into her quilt designs. An award-winning quilter, Patricia’s quilts have been exhibited at quilt museums across the country.

Forty years ago, Reiko Sudo co-founded Nuno Corporation with Junichi Arai. Although “nuno” simply means fabric in Japanese, Sudo’s textile creations are anything but simple!   

The innovative textiles produced by Nuno, conceived by Sudo and her team, blend traditional Japanese dyeing and weaving mastery with advanced modern techniques.

Sudo has been recognized globally for her contributions to Japanese textile design. Her work includes collaborations with architects, fashion designers, and artists, as well as major museum exhibits.

The project was designed by Ed Marquand, Reiko Sudo, and Alfred Birnbaum.

All 140 textiles included in The Nuno Box were produced by Nuno: Reiko Sudo, Hiroko Suwa, Sayuri Shimoda, Kazuhiro Ueno, Yumi Yasui, Jun Mashiba, Yuki Abe, Gaku Masui, Tomoko Fujino, Fumi Ito, Masaaki Takekura, and Hiroaki Takekura.

The texts, translation, editing, and coordination were handled by Alfred Birnbaum.

The letterpress printing was by Steve Morgan, and the binding was completed by Maria Solorio and Teresa Martinez.

The Nuno Box was compiled and constructed at Paper Hammer Studios in Tieton, Washington.

The Nuno Box has been acquired by a bevy of private collectors as well as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Cooper-Hewitt, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Asian Art Museum, Cotsen Foundation, Tokyo Zokei University, Textile Museum, Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, Savannah College of Art and Design, and UCLA Library.