Credits: Maxfoucault57 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
The Aubusson International Tapestry City announced, on August 7, 2026, a monumental work inspired by an Isao Takahata film. Five springtime scenes from The Tale of the Princess Kaguya are to become five weavings covering about 25 m². Behind the partnership with Studio Ghibli, the project poses a concrete challenge. The transparency, ink, and movement of an animation conceived like a watercolor must be rendered in wool.
Five Springtime Scenes for 25 m²
Revealed by ICI Creuse, the announcement describes not an isolated image, but a short sequence. The five scenes show Princess Kaguya carried along by the arrival of spring, beneath cherry blossoms. They are to be transformed into five panels forming a set close to a storyboard, according to Emmanuel Gérard, director of the City.
The announced surface area, about 25 m², corresponds to the five weavings together and not to each one individually. Their respective dimensions, hanging method, and place of first presentation have not yet been specified. The identity of the workshop is to be announced in fall 2026, and completion is planned for 2028. These two deadlines therefore remain provisional.
Choosing a sequence rather than a single scene makes it possible to preserve a sense of narrative. A tapestry is motionless, but moving from one panel to the next can restore a progression. Kaguya’s gesture, the opening of the landscape, and the brilliance of the flowers create this movement. The challenge will be to preserve this continuity without turning the images into simple enlarged reproductions.
From Watercolor to Loom
The film’s artwork relies on shifting outlines, light washes, and areas where the paper remains almost visible. Wool, by contrast, produces a dense surface built thread by thread. Delphine Mangeret, cartoon-and-color specialist, is taking part in the preparatory work. She is trying to “create the illusion of transparency with wool,” she explained to ICI Creuse.
Before weaving comes the cartoon, that is, the full-scale model that guides the weaver. It is not enough to enlarge the frames. Each shade must become a choice of threads, materials, colors, and densities. Threads that are finer or thicker, mixed or spaced apart, can suggest an ink line, a fade, or a vibration. Movement, meanwhile, must emerge from the differences between the five compositions as much as from the design within each one.
The Aubusson tapestry craft has been listed since 2009 on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. It rests on a chain of trades. A cartoon painter prepares the image, then the wools are dyed. The weaver then works by hand on a horizontal loom, working from the back. The result is fully revealed only as the work progresses and during weaving checks.
This method explains the multi-year schedule. It requires upfront testing and ongoing trade-offs. A color that works on paper can lose its transparency in wool. An overly regular outline can also erase the nervous energy of Takahata’s drawing.
A Public Commission Split Into Three Lots
The project has already entered an administrative phase. A corrective contract notice published in BOAMP on February 23, 2026, explicitly concerns a service related to The Tale of the Princess Kaguya. The procedure description divides the commission into three lots. The first concerns project management assistance and the supply of the cartoon. The other two cover dyed wools and materials, then the weaving of the work. This breakdown makes visible what Ghibli’s prestige could obscure: the creation depends on multiple skills and multiple companies. Project management assistance supports the City in overseeing the commission. The cartoon organizes the transition from image to textile, while dyeing prepares the palette. Weaving finally gives physical form to the five panels.
As of August 10, the available sources do not allow the final awardees to be identified. The overall amount of the project and each funding share also remain unknown. The workshop announcement in the fall will provide a first answer. It will not be enough to document the cost, the volume of wool, the hours of work, or the selection criteria. That information will be needed to measure precisely the effects of the commission on the local industry.
A Tribute to Isao Takahata After the Miyazaki Cycle
The choice of Kaguya also shifts the spotlight within Studio Ghibli. The film is the last feature directed by Isao Takahata, who died in 2018. Its deliberately unfinished line differs from the more immediately recognizable aesthetic of several Hayao Miyazaki films. That gives the textile project its main visual challenge.
Emmanuel Gérard explained to ICI Creuse that Takahata was familiar with France and Aubusson. The filmmaker reportedly helped make possible the partnership concluded with Studio Ghibli in 2020. The new hanging is therefore presented as a tribute to the filmmaker as much as the continuation of an institutional collaboration.
The previous project concerns Miyazaki’s universe. The City’s official presentation describes a hanging planned in six tapestries. It does not, by itself, make it possible to say that all six pieces were completed at the time Kaguya was announced. The new project must therefore be understood as a separate set, devoted to Takahata, and not as a seventh tapestry attributed to Miyazaki.
An Ancient Heritage Faced With a Contemporary Image
An Aubusson tapestry is not recognized by a particular motif. Its method of production and the ecosystem of trades that supports it are what make it unique. This definition has long made it possible to engage in dialogue with animation cinema and other contemporary images. With Tolkien, Miyazaki, and then Takahata, the City translates globally popular worlds into wool. At the same time, it maintains a commission for cartoon makers, dyers, and weavers.
This strategy can renew the audience for the Aubusson tapestry museum and give international visibility to local skills. It also comes with a requirement: not to reduce craftsmanship to reproducing a famous brand. For Kaguya, the project’s value will depend on how the workshops reinterpret the watercolor. It will also depend on transparency about the commission, its players, and its production conditions.
At this stage, the project is well documented in its intent and administrative framework. The work itself still has to be made. Between the film’s five scenes and the announced 25 m² of wool, several decisions still lie ahead for the artisans. They concern the palette, materials, densities, workshops, and hanging.