We first met Yoshiko Nagai in 2024 on a trip to Japan. Yoshiko introduced us to Haruhina, her favourite south Indian restaurant in Kyoto, and it quickly became our favourite too. From our first meeting, we became friends, and welcomed Yoshiko on a visit to Erode where she was continuing her research into south Indian ‘meals’. She was able to see some of the ingredients growing on the farm, and to feel the connection between the soil, the food we eat, and the clothes we wear. Here, we asked Yoshiko a few questions about her work. 

Oshadi: Can you tell us how you got started working in fashion/curation/materials?

Yoshiko Nagai: I was always interested in the environment of making-things, not only for fashion but everything that human beings have made to live on the earth, because it forms the fundamental part of our ‘culture’. My interest in curation came out naturally, because I wanted to oversee, connect and share what and how human beings have been making things and where it is heading to. Curation, as I think, is the way to bridge cultural artefacts and audiences. Also, it can bridge the material/maker and audience and introduce where things have come from and how things are made. I believe this is especially important nowadays when people live far from natural resources.

Luckily, I had worked in a company that works closely with craftsmen, where I was in charge of cultural activities and art production that offer access to broader society. The more I worked with craftsmen, artists, and carpenters, I realised that they are all interested in  where materials come from. It  is important for us to be aware of this because nature only becomes material through human contact.

Oshadi: Can you share some of your career highlights?

Yoshiko: Working with many artists and designers of different disciplines. I worked mainly for production of art pieces or communication materials so it was challenging and exciting to work from the scratch, balancing on what I want to say and what artist is pursuing with their own creative path. The happiest moment was when I receive the first proposal from the artist.

Oshadi: How are food and clothes related?

Yoshiko: Eating is the symbolic act of being part of nature. All the material comes from the earth, and if things are made correctly, everything should be digested into the stomach of human beings, and it eventually goes to the soil. Textiles too.

A cotton flower and boll on the farm at Oshadi Collective, Erode

Oshadi: Tell us about Materia Prima, when did you start it and what is your vision?

Yoshiko: I started Materia Prima in 2020. It is a production label or platform to share and communicate the process of making, how human beings have involved nature and made it to be material with users and audience. We create narratives and contents to talk about this idea working with those who make things, from craftsmen, artists, designers to industries and small business, to reconnect the earth and human hands.

Oshadi: How has your visit to Ōshadi collective changed the way you think about clothes?

Yoshiko: Thanks to the close local production network of Oshadi, I could see how cotton is grown, made into material, and woven into textile and tailored into clothes in the community, which made me understand that clothes are made from the soil. It is as if picking up the vegetables from the garden, cooking them in the kitchen and eating them in the dining room of the same house. 

Read Nutritious Water by Yoshiko Nagai

To see more of Yoshiko’s work go to @mate_prima