麻太郎 Asatarou
Macramé artist

Born in Tokyo in 1975. Growing up with a mother whose hobby was pottery and Japanese painting, Asatarou was exposed to traditional art at an early age. At the age of 16, Asatarou began working at a second-hand clothing store, where he also made accessories with leather strings and linen thread. At 25, he opened a store in Tokyo where he began to seriously explore the art of macramé and two years later, a newspaper article about the store introduced him to an opportunity to help with the production of a textbook about macramé art. 
Around the same time, Asatarou began to hold macramé workshops all over the country - at craft stores, schools, company trainings, and social welfare centers, where he works with disabled children and the elderly. At these workshops, he hears from a customer that Japan is a country of ties - a country that values ties between gods to people, the earth to people, and people to people. Asatarou’s pieces are made with a knot called Shichihou, or seven treasures, consisting of overlapping circles and is considered to bring luck. The word ‘circles’ in Japanese has the same sound as connections, and the overlapping circles symbolizes continuous and bountiful relationships, and likens the value of such connections to the seven treasures of the world. Asatarou hopes to tie the world with Japan through his macramé artwork.