Fukumi Shimura encountered Goethe by a happy chance. She had become involved in the Japanese folk art movement Mingei, started by Soetsu Yanagi and after much agonising had become a textile-dyeing artist. On the recommendation of the poet Makoto Ooka, and through the philosopher Yoshito Tanaka, Goethe’s Theory of Colours landed in her the hands.
Thirty-one-year-old Taka Fujii has an unusual background. She was born in Kumamoto Prefecture and currently teaches bioethics at the Medical Department of Saga University. Taka Fujii, a licensed physician, has just completed her PhD in philosophy while continuing to work part-time as a physician.
