Niagara Falls woman keeps Japanese art, culture alive through creations

Back again in 2009, Rie Sporar was again in her indigenous Japan with her youngest daughter for a excursion when she arrived throughout her late grandmother’s aged silk kimono saved in her mother’s closet. That sparked an strategy in the Niagara Falls woman’s mind.

“I assumed, it’s possible I can do something with it,” she mentioned. “It’s section of the lifestyle I wanted to move on to my youngsters.”

So Sporar, who arrived to Canada in 1999 to research at Niagara University and ended up meeting her long run partner while working at a community resort, started generating eye-catching jewelry and accessories these types of as purses working with cloth from classic kimonos and the sashes that are utilised with them, named obis.

JunNa Style and design — a mixture of the first names of her daughters Jun and Hana — has since attained a title for itself at craft shows and on Sporar’s Facebook and Instagram web pages.

Sporar, who has travelled to Indonesia, Easter Island, Spain and Morocco in addition to return excursions to her homeland distinct across the world, said people adventures drove home the worth to her of being aware of and holding her possess native society alive for her family.

“Canada is a new country, which I like, but Japan has so a great deal heritage we will need to move on to new generations,” she claimed.

Might is Asian Heritage Month in Canada, and the federal federal government mentioned it’s an possibility for all Canadians to find out much more about the numerous achievements and contributions of Canadians of Asian descent who, all over our history, have done so much to make Canada the place we share now.

Sporar utilizes the common tsumami zaiku handcraft system, a fragile procedure of pinching content to make kanzashi bouquets, as component of her household-primarily based company.

“It is extremely time-consuming,” she said. “It can take practically 3 hrs to make a flower.”

But to Sporar, it’s time very well spent if she’s supporting to go on ancient art procedures and a wealthy lifestyle. She famous that in Japan, kimonos are now only worn for special events, this sort of as weddings.

“It’s these a waste simply because they are so wonderful,” she reported. “That’s why I desired to make a little something out of (kimonos) so other individuals can enjoy it.”

At craft reveals, Sporar said she fulfills people who have never been to Japan but who are stunned by how amazing the creations can be. “I also meet persons who have been to Japan who invest in purses to remind themselves of the beauty of Japan,” she stated.

Sporar can be attained by e mail at [email protected].

She can also be arrived at at her Instagram web page at www.instagram.com/junnadesign and through her Facebook site at www.facebook.com/junnadesign1.