From Tauranga City Library’s archives
A monthly blog about interesting items in our collection
One of the items recently digitised by the Heritage & Research Team is this framed embroidery mountain scene, worked by Rata Roden when she was 84.
'Japanese Punch' embroidery by Rata Roden, 1992 (Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Ams 457/4/9)
Japanese punch embroidery, or bunka embroidery, bunka shishu, uses a specialised hollow needle to weave rayon thread from the front of the fabric, through to the back. The effect is often likened to oil paintings or watercolours. As finished pieces tend to be fragile, they tend to be displayed as art, rather than onto clothing.
Rata was born 'Bessie Rata Lever', and the Lever family papers in our archives include her workbox and pincushions.
Workbox and contents (Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Ams 406/1)
Also in the workbox was a copy of her autobiography 'Here, there and most places'. Published in Tauranga in 1973, Rata acknowledged the assistance of Miss Joan Mirrielees, Kathleen Stratford and Gaye Rendell. The jacket blurb describes her story:
...Rata Roden has made an interesting record of her experiences in a variety of occupations in a variety of countries. It is the biography of a New Zealander, a farmer’s daughter, who, through dogged persistence realised her two main ambitions – to become a nurse, and to travel to foreign places. It is an absorbing account covering backblock farming days, nursing in the slums of London, living in many parts of Africa, the World War II in Egypt and England, travel to Japan, the Orient, Iceland, Greenland, Russia and Scandinavia. Altogether Mrs Roden has made eleven trips out of New Zealand and in her story she takes us with her."
Writing was in the family, as it's Rata's cousin Arthur Gray who wrote 'An Ulster Plantation'. Copies of both books are in the reference collection at Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Library.
Sources
Clasper-Torch, Micah. (2021, April 27). The history of punch needle. Sister Magazine, (61). sister-mag.com/en/magazine/sistermag-no-61-may-2021/the-history-of-punch-needle
Roden, Rata. (1973). Here, there and most places. Ashford-Kent Ltd.
Tokyo Bunka Art. (2007, May). Japanese Bunka Embroidery - The art of thread. tokyo-bunka-art.blogspot.com/2007/05
Victoria's Custom Framing & Stitchery. (2024, December 3). Bunka embroidery. facebook.com/story.php
Written by Kate Charteris, Heritage Specialist at Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries
