SAORI is a contemporary hand weaving program founded by Misao Jo (1913-, Japan) in 1969. She started weaving when she was 57 years old and, with her son, invented her own loom and created her own style, free from the traditional concept and rules of weaving. She named her weaving style 'SAORI' in which anyone can express oneself freely regardless of age, gender, disability or intellectual aptitude. 

The SA of SAORI is the first syllable of the word SAI. SAI is found in Zen vocabulary. It means everything has its own individual dignity. And the ORI of SAORI means weaving.

SAORI in Japan is also known as VSA Arts Japan. VSA Arts is an international non-profit organization that creates learning opportunities through the arts for people with disabilities. It was founded by Jean Kennedy Smith as an affiliate of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. As an affiliate of VSA Arts, VSA Arts Japan provides worldwide support for the artistic activities of people with disabilities

 Since SAORI has been introduced all over Japan, there are more than 50,000 SAORI weavers in the country. SAORI has also been introduced overseas in more than 45 countries in Asia, the Middle East, North America, Central America, South America, Europe, Australia and Africa.  It is offered as a healing art at nearly one thousand institutions including special education schools, sheltered workshops, high schools, adult education centers, and rehabilitation centers for people with disabilities. 

SAORI IN THE NEW YORK CITY AREA

The path of SAORI Arts NYC was inspired by Misao Jo.  Yukako Satone, a designer from Japan living in NYC, met Misao Jo just a month before 9/11 and learned Saori.  Yukako hosted her first Saori workshop near Ground Zero for friends and children of the victims of the World Trade Center Attack.   Shortly after that experience, she opened Loop of the Loom, a Saori weaving studio on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.  The studio grew, with enthusiastic weavers coming from all five boroughs in addition to Connecticut and New Jersey. 

In 2015, with the knowledge of how valuable Saori could be as art intervention for those with disabilities, Yukako Satone founded SAORI Arts NYC, a 501(c)3 organization, in collaboration with two other Saori artists, Ria Hawks, a pediatric nurse practitioner, and Brandy Godsil, a fiber arts and fashion designer.  It is our hope that the creative power of Saori will transform the lives of children and adults with challenges who are seeking a means of self-discovery.