Not Hand-Made but Hand-Thought
“Technique and skills must be absorbed and wrapped up and put away to become such an integral part of yourself that they will be revealed in your work without your thought.” – Shoji Hamada
Text & photographs by Anna Rosa Krau
Some months ago, I first stumbled across Frank R. Wilsons’s book The Hand: How Its Use Shapes the Brain, Language, and Human Culture. At the time, I felt exhausted and went to botanical therapist Ryoko Hori’s Salon of Senses for a remedy. While I experienced the first half of her massage in an appreciative yet distant mood, still feeling numbed by the treadmill of everyday life, my brain gradually started to wake up in the second half. Now far more energised and awake, I began to receive and become aware of every single movement of her hands. Something in my attention had shifted and I felt like I was witnessing a sensually flowing rhythm. The massage had turned into a manual ceremony, a silent musical composition. My body became an instrument and her healing hands performed an ephemeral soothing piece of art. This was the moment when I realised: Hands have an autonomous, intuitive intelligence and possess something distinctly different and beyond the intellectual capacity of our brains.
This is how The Lissome’s “Maker’s Month” came to life and how Ryoko was captured as a model in her first regenerative fashion story, lending her exceptional hands once more to the act of creating.
To delve further into Ryoko’s world, you can read an interview with her below the fashion story.
Four questions for Ryoko Hori:
Anna Rosa Krau: What does the poetry of your hands speak of when you engage into massage or craft?
Ryoko Hori: In Japanese “Te A Te（手当て)” means putting one’s hand on but also a treatment. Our hands have a natural healing power. When you injure your body, for example, you tend to intuitively put your hand on the injured area. The palm is an entrance for energy, for connecting yourself with your surroundings and also for transmitting your soul to an object. I call handmade objects soulful objects. That’s why I believe that it is never possible to replace handwork by any machine.
Anna Rosa: Are your hands an intuitive channel into your own inner world, communicating with the anatomy of another being or are they more like a melody that you play in tune with? Is your work a purely receptive art form opening up the messages of embodied emotions? A kind of body therapy? How do you work?
Ryoko: All sounds correct. There are many ways and layers. In my massage therapy, I rarely use my eyes but I can go deep inside of someone unknown. Through feeling their skin condition, my hands learn about their lifestyles, diets and digestive systems. Through their anatomy, I gain knowledge about their habits and tendencies as well as their traumas, and through their physical feedbacks about blockages and emotions. But my work is not to name the problems as no-one is perfect anyway. My philosophy is that humans’ anatomical evolution is so imperfect that it is simply normal to have any sort of complaints and pains. I’d rather like to provide a “space” within the body where the body can adjust itself and get back into balance.
Anna Rosa: How have you received the wisdom of your hands? Have you always worked in this field?
Ryoko: I started this journey about twelve years ago. I learned different manual therapies and studied intensively with different teachers, schools, and gurus for three years. Previously, I had been working in fashion after studying fashion design. I’ve always liked to use my hands and make something. My favourite subject at school was arts and crafts, probably thanks to my grandmother who taught me all kind of handcrafts such as sewing, knitting, origami, and paper-cut art when I was child. But despite of being familiar with all of these handcrafts, the journey into manual therapy was still an eye opener to me – as if I had never used ‘that’ part of my brain in my life before!
I understood that my hands are the extension of my body that act as a conduit between the human body that I treat and the universe. Thus, I am just an empty tunnel but my hands work with an organic element and this work heals me as well.
Anna Rosa: You host a “Salon of Senses” in Berlin. What are your thoughts, hopes and fears of a virtual future?
Ryoko: We believe that our senses activate our natural healing systems and harmonise ourselves within the environment that surrounds us, and wanted to offer sensory experiences in today’s world of analysis and judgement. Senses are about experiencing, and not about studying or understanding. There is no right answer for how you feel. Any experience becomes your own, and it is a treasure that only you hold.
You can visit Ryoko at her Salon of Senses.
All ceramic pieces are available in her Berlin store and online.
Team Credits:
Model
Ryoko Hori
Photography
Anna Rosa Krau
@talentandpartner @klaus_stiegemeyer
Styling
Kamilla Richter @shotview_management
Hair & Makeup
Linda Sigg @ninakleinagency
Video Support
Ansgar Sollmann
Fashion Assistants
Meriska Suparman & Daniela Meichelböck
Location
Clayground Berlin
Credits:
Image 1:
Blouse: Talia Lipkin Connor
Ring: Alighieri
Skirt: Atelier Solarshop
Jumper: Niccolo Pasqualetti
Ring: IAAI
Chain Ring: Pulva
Earring: Hola Amor
Socks: Swedish Stockings
Image 2:
Jumper: Niccolo Pasqualetti
Earring: Hola Amor
Jacket: Sydney Pimbley
Skirt: Renli Su
Earring: Hola Amor
Ceramics: Golden Ear by Martha Ruess
Image 3:
Blouse: Talia Lipkin Connor
Pants: Jan-Jan Van Essche
Shoes: Goya
Ring & Necklace: Alighieri
Image 4:
Ceramic Earrrings: Levens
Dress: Matka
Coat: Jan-Jan Van Essche
Sleeve: KM by Lange
Shoes: Goya
Earrings: Alice Waese
Ceramics (left): Tea Cup by Studio Cuze
Vases by Studio MC / Jessica Coates and Michel Müller
Ceramics (right): Akihiro Nikaido, Shiho Takada, Studio Cuze
Image 5:
Dress: Matka
Coat: Jan-Jan Van Essche
Sleeve: KM by Lange
Shoes: Goya
Earrings: Alice Waese
Image 6:
Earring: Ariana Boussard-Reifel
Blouse: Richert Beil
Earring: Tetier
Image 7:
Necklace & Rings: IAAI
Image 8:
Dress: Bleu Chose
Necklace: Golpira
Image 9:
Overall: Luna del Pina
Socks: Swedish Stockings
Shoes: Goya
Rings left: Migle
Ring right: Ariana Boussard-Reifel
Earring: Levens
Image 10:
Jumper: Maiami
Skirt: Matka
Earring: Ariana Boussard-Reifel
Bracelet: Johanna Gauder
Image 11:
Arm Cuff: Alighieri
Ceramics by: Studio Cuze, Tomasz Niedziółka,
Marie-Annick Le Blanc, Eva Trenz
Image 12:
Ring & Hair Piece: Ariana Boussard-Reifel
Skirt: Jan-Jan Van Essche
Jumper: Niccolo Pasqualetti
Ring: IAAI
Chain Ring: Pulver
Earring: Hola Amor
Shoes: Goya
Socks: Swedish Stockings
Image 13:
Overall: Jan-Jan Van Essche
Belt: KM by Lange
Top & Pleated Pants: Julia Heuer
Shoes: Goya
Ring & Hairpiece: Ariana Boussard-Reifel
Coat: Lara-Carlotta Weil
Shirt & Pants: Match
Earring: Levens
Rings: Alighieri
Image 14:
Coat: Rave Review
Arm Cuff: Alighieri
Ring: Ariana Boussard-Reifel
Earring: Alice Waese