November 2015

1
November 2015

TABLE OF CONTENTS
ON THE COVER:
One of Austrian artist
Stephanie Rauchwarter’s
6-meter Pyjamen kites.
More on page 21.
NOVEMBER 2015
From the Editors 3
Correspondence 5
Contributors 6
AKA Convention 7
SCOTT SKINNER
Off to the Birthplace of Kites 12
ALI FUJINO
Why Kites? 21
STEPHANIE RAUCHWARTER
Kites, the Art of Using Natural Materials 30
SCOTT SKINNER
The Experiments of 1899: Wilbur and 35
Orville Wright Fly a Kite
TOM D. CROUCH
Drachen Foundation does
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within, unless stated. Authors
and photographers retain all
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thank them for granting us
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permission to reprint an
article, please contact us at
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with the author.
Mikio Toki 46
SCOTT SKINNER
2

FROM THE EDITORS
EDITORS
Scott Skinner
Ali Fujino
Katie Davis
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Scott Skinner
Martin Lester
Joe Hadzicki
Stuart Allen
Dave Lang
Jose Sainz
Ali Fujino
BOARD OF DIRECTORS EMERITUS
Bonnie Wright
Wayne Wilson
Keith Yoshida
ADVISORY BOARD
Paul Reynolds
Drachen Foundation
is a non-profit 501(c)(3)
corporation devoted to the
increase and diffusion of
knowledge about kites
worldwide.
WWW.DRACHEN.ORG
Discourse is published on the
Drachen Foundation website several
times a year and can be downloaded
free at www.drachen.org
(under Browse > Articles).
Playful! I just can’t get past that description
when I think of and see Steffi Rauchwarter’s
kites. Her freedom of expression jumps into
the air on the wings of her imaginative kites
and I smile when I think of “Stupid Fritz” –
what a kite name! Steffi brings her textile and
fine arts background to her cotton-sailed kites
and has worked under the tutelage of fellow
Austrians Anna Rubin and Jan Houterman to
bring these functional and wonderful creations
to festivals throughout Europe. Enjoy her
unique approach and be inspired.
Another inspirational work is the book, Kites,
The Art of Using Natural Materials, by John
Browning. Not a “how-to,” this is a book that
inspires with photographs of John’s wonderful
kites constructed of all-natural materials.
Readers of Discourse and kitemakers of any
background need this book on their library
shelf.
On a much more serious note, we are happy
to have a contribution from Tom Crouch,
Senior Curator of Aeronautics at the
Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. Crouch
examines the early years of the Wright
Brothers’ flight experiments and their first
thoughts on flight stability. Their chosen
analytical tool: a four-line, controllable,
“peculiar sort of box kite!” Thanks to Tom for
revisiting this essay and allowing us to publish
it.
Ali Fujino jumps back in time to 1988 and
reminisces about travel to the birthplace of
kites with one of the United States’ great kite
ambassadors, Dave Checkley. Personally, this
3

was a wonderful trip for me – not only in
meeting Ali, but also in meeting kite friends
Karen Gurezka, Jenny and Clyde Cook, actress
Gloria Stuart, and Simon Frieden, among
others. Peter Lynn tells me that the kite scene is
exploding in China – take a look at these early
days for some perspective.
I took the opportunity to write about two
events: the AKA Convention in Enid,
Oklahoma, and the Japan America Society of
Colorado’s “Kite Days.” The Convention
continues to be a showcase of American
kitemaking and flying, while the JASC event
was an opportunity for Coloradans to meet
and work with Mikio Toki of Tokyo, Japan. One
event inspires by its volume, while the other
inspires with small moments, but both prove
the power of kites to move us.
Scott Skinner
Board President
Drachen Foundation
4

CORRESPONDENCE
I think that kite [in Christopher Skinner’s article
“Kites in a Middle School Science Classroom”]
has a lot of character and just looking at it tells
me that kites don’t have to be perfect as long
as they fly. The joy, the wonderment, the
knowledge they bring when they lift out of
your hands skywards is like putting all three of
those concepts into a fulfillment only flying a
kite you’ve made can bring.
It is scientific and artistic but the beauty is all
in our hands lifting us up. It’s almost spiritual.
Thank you for always sharing.
FRANK KENISKY
USA
Thank you, Drachen Foundation, for being
awesome!
WHATEVER LAB
USA
Great issue!
RICHARD S. ROBERTSON
USA
Another great issue from the end of the line:
Drachen Foundation’s Discourse. With an
interesting story on KAPer Oscar Frey.
KAPSHOP.COM
USA
5

CONTRIBUTORS
TOM D. CROUCH
Washington, DC
Crouch is Senior Curator of Aeronautics at
the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space
Museum. He holds a PhD from Ohio
State University and is author or editor of
15 books and many articles for scholarly
journals and popular magazines.
Eric Long
ALI FUJINO
Seattle, Washington
From work at the Smithsonian to her
present status as Director of Advancement
for the Alaska Wilderness League, Fujino
continues her 24 years with the
Drachen Foundation by serving on
Drachen’s Board of Directors.
Fujino Family
STEPHANIE RAUCHWARTER
Vienna, Austria
Rauchwarter studied painting
and textile art at the Academy of
Fine Art Vienna, changed to the
Academy of Applied Art, and finished
in graphic design. She lives and
works in Vienna.
Collaction
SCOTT SKINNER
Monument, Colorado
A former Air Force instructor
pilot, Drachen’s board president
has flown and designed kites for
three decades. Today, Skinner is
known as a world class,
visionary kite artist.
Courtesy Scott Skinner
6

AKA CONVENTION
Scott Skinner
I have to admit, over 30 years after my first
American Kitefliers Association (AKA)
Convention in 1983, I still get excited to attend
this annual event. My schedule conspired to
give me only three days at this year’s edition,
held in Enid, Oklahoma. In fact, one of those
three days was Monday, when the convention
hadn’t actually officially started. At any rate,
even with a relatively lightly attended
convention (I was #119 and I registered in
Enid), I still found this to be an opportunity to
see people I haven’t seen in years, to see kites
unveiled for the very first time, and to share
kite lore old and new.
Scott Skinner
Kites fly at the 2015 American Kitefliers Association
(AKA) Convention in Enid, Oklahoma.
I was fortunate to watch much of the
comprehensive kitemaking field competition,
and it was a day that did no favors for the
competitors. Very light and sporadic winds
made every flight a test of skill and light-wind/
light-weight construction. Competition
categories had minimal numbers of
competitors and some categories were
cancelled because of a lack of entries, but, as
usual, the great kites maintained the high
standards of past winners. The comprehensive
kitemaking competition is always a snapshot of
kites at a given time and place – wind
conditions and numbers of competitors are
simply two variables along the road to Grand
National Champion.
Also on the field that day was the beginning of
the fighter kite competition. This has become
one of my favorite pieces of the convention.
Great camaraderie, old and new fighter kite
continued on page 11
7

Scott Skinner
A kite from the Buffalo Kite Project, where organizer
TZ Lee and Drake Smith collaborate with
native artists to produce unique kites.
8

Scott Skinner
The city of Enid is rumored to have been so enamored by the
AKA Convention presence that it may promote an annual
event in years that the convention goes elsewhere.
9

Scott Skinner
In Scott Skinner’s three-stick kite workshop, kitemakers were
limited to using three straight sticks of equal length.
10

designs, and skill to fly in any wind
condition are just a few of the reasons that
this group can do its thing any time, any
place. I brought a little piece of fighter kite
history to the convention auction in the
form of a Vic’s Fighter Kite, still in the
original tube and with original instructions.
I had no idea until I opened it up that it was
an early model with steel cross-spars. The
tube included three cross-spars: one for
light winds, one thicker for heavier winds,
and a third to add for fine adjustments in
intermediate winds. I remember being told
that Vic’s changed their fighter sails from
aluminized mylar to clear mylar because of
incidents with power lines. I wondered if I
had the story wrong and it was these steel
spars that were the problem? Shoot an email
to the Drachen Foundation if you remember
details of the Vic’s Fighter Kite.
an annual event in years that the AKA
Convention goes elsewhere. The Buffalo
Kite Project, where organizer TZ Lee and
Drake Smith collaborate with native artists
to produce unique kites, was in Enid this
year. It seems that these would be a perfect
centerpiece for future kite gatherings in Enid
and collaborations with the variety of
Native American tribes in the area. ◆
During the convention, I presented a hands
on workshop on the three-stick method. I
missed my friend Jose Sainz, who has done
the three-stick workshop with me and
brings a completely different approach to
the problem. But in asking these
experienced kitemakers to be limited by
three straight sticks of equal length, I was
pleased to see a variety of creative endproducts
produced. I was fortunate to have
a cancelled workshop and poor outdoor
weather conspire to give my workshop
many more attendees and as much working
space as was needed for everyone to work
comfortably.
I packed up and left immediately after the
workshop and followed Facebook and the
AKA website for results of the week.
Certainly there were wonderful kites and
great people on the vast flying fields of Enid.
The city of Enid honored Oklahoman and
AKA fixture Richard Dermer by naming the
flying fields in his honor, and there are
rumors that Enid is so enamored by the AKA
Convention presence that it may promote
11

OFF TO THE BIRTHPLACE
OF KITES
Ali Fujino
Ali Fujino
Street scenes in early western tourist China, 1988. Taken
by Ali Fujino on one of the last China kite tours to Weifang
developed and run by David and Dorothea Checkley.
It was the year 1988. There were many firsts
this year. It was the first time I experienced
China. It was the first time I met Scott
Skinner and the world famous actress Gloria
Stuart. It was also the first time I met
kitemaking enthusiasts from around the
world, including the infamous David and
Dorothea Checkley of Seattle, Washington.
Let’s start with China.
1988 was the opening of a “new” China to
the western world. The leadership of Mao
had passed, and China was wiggling its way
into a more modern and more capitalistic
way of life. After centuries of being an
insular country, she opened her doors and
asked people to look in. My photos
illustrate the way it was in 1988, which is
nothing like China today. It was a youthful
country interested in being a part of the
modern international world, lusting after a
lifestyle of personal wealth and a culture of
personal independence. I was NOT the first
westerner to visit China, but I was a part of
that door opening. I found there was little
infrastructure for the western visitor. There
were few hotels and very few restaurants.
China greeted us with as much hospitality
as a restrictive government would allow, but
we were not allowed to explore China on
continued on page 16
12

Ali Fujino
1988 new generation China.
13

Ali Fujino
Scott Skinner with children in Weifang, China.
14

Ali Fujino
TOP: Kitemakers with small swallow kite.
BOTTOM: Colorful monkey kites.
15

our own. We always had a Chinese
government tourist guide. The faces of the
people in my photos show it all. It was still
a country with rules and regimentation.
DAVID AND DOROTHEA CHECKLEY
These two individuals were the reason I was
visiting China. Credited with opening the
western door to the traditional kitemakers of
Japan, it was natural for David and
Dorothea to investigate and open the doors
to the traditional kitemakers of China. David
loved kites, and when he wasn’t working as
a professional architect, he was passionately
involved in kiting. He did it all, making his
own kites and starting a cottage industry of
kite designs and products which he
marketed to small kite companies
throughout the United States. The Checkleys
quickly became the royalty of American
kiting, hosting the first Japanese kitefliers in
the United States, as well as visiting these
kite friends in Japan. It was natural for them
to do the same in China. They developed
the tour for those who were interested in
learning more about Chinese kites and
visiting the “birthplace of kites,” Weifang,
China.
SCOTT SKINNER AND ALI FUJINO
Scott was lured from Colorado Springs,
Colorado to learn more about the kites of
China. This was his first trip, and he signed
up to go with the Checkleys. Others from
around the world did the same thing. There
were representatives from Germany,
Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Italy,
just to name a few countries. We all wanted
to experience Chinese kites. It all seemed
very simple: you paid the Checkleys the
designated amount for the tour and showed
up at the Beijing Airport on the designated
day. The Checkleys would take it from there.
Welcome to China!
The tour was a gloriously long train trip to
the interior of China. Over the days of living
on a slow-moving steam train, this group of
international kitemakers bonded together
and attempted to make sense of the
nonsensical. As the photos show, we
experienced working China. No matter if it
was a job in government or at the Weifang
Kite Factory, this was a country that knew
how to work hard with a goal of supporting
the greater good. We saw a working and
transitioning China. The magic of
experiencing a new approach to kiting
began to take hold. Lively and late-into-thenight
conversations about Chinese kites
ensued throughout the trip.
I was entertained by the expertise and
personal kites of each international
kitemaker on the tour. Traveling afforded the
opportunity to learn more about each
kitemaker and what they were passionate
about. Scott was working on his American
patchwork quilting of ripstop. Tom
Casselman of Boston, Massachusetts gave us
lessons on besting the Chinese in haggling
for their kites. He wanted to collect Chinese
kites to study them. Simon Winchester from
Australia kept a very detailed journal and
took many photos. Ken Conrad of Seattle,
Washington sourced kites for his popular
kite store in downtown Seattle.
The Chinese wowed us with their
spectacular presentations of kites and
festivals. They were large and wellorchestrated
extravaganzas featuring
thousands of local artists, residents, and
school children, celebrating the excitement
of kites and the westerners there to share in
it!
AND WHAT WAS THE RESULT OF THIS 14 DAY
TOUR?
Scott Skinner and I returned and started
continued on page 20
16

Ali Fujino
The 1988 Weifang Kite Festival.
17

Ali Fujino
The Weifang Kite Factory.
18

Ali Fujino
TOP: Scott Skinner with bamboo kite frame.
BOTTOM: USA stunt kite team: Fujino, Conrad, Casselman.
19

Drachen Design, which designed and
marketed kite products, and later turned
into the Drachen Foundation.
David Checkley passed away that following
year from cancer, but left the door open to
the traditional kiting cultures of Japan and
China.
Tom Casselman became one of the foremost
collectors of Japanese and Chinese kites.
and as a kite artist incorporated many of the
Chinese designs into his own ripstop kites.
Ken Conrad marketed Chinese factory kites
throughout the United States, making it
affordable for anyone to own one, and
started a personal collection featuring some
of the most interesting commerciallyproduced
Chinese kites.
Gloria Stuart, the Los Angeles actress, went
on to play the role of Old Rose in the award
winning movie Titanic and was an Academy
Award nominee for best supporting actress
for her role at 100 years old. She
incorporated what she saw in China into her
final silkscreened, letterpressed, and
collaged limited edition art book, Kites.
Isn’t it interesting what can develop from a
simple tour? ◆
20

WHY KITES?
Stephanie Rauchwarter
Collaction
Austrian artist Stephanie Rauchwarter’s creations:
flags, Adventure Beast, and Pyjamaleausenne.
21

Making kites took me to a big free space.
To work in the field of discrepancy between
physical and nature forces and fantasy is for
me a wonderful challenge. The tension to
realize the design I have in my mind and to
make it fly is very stimulating. When you
keep the mind open, you will be able to
find solutions and alternatives.
To place art pieces in the sky, with alwayschanging
light combined with the
movement caused by the wind, this is a very
special performance. Even the “color white”
gets another quality compared to the
situation on the ground.
To focus on cooperation with the wind
means to practice respect for nature for an
instant, an exercise mankind withdraws
from more and more.
◆◆◆
After my studies at the Academy of Fine Art
Vienna, my work covers fine art and applied
art. Changing between these two fields, I
can move my mind not to get in a routine.
I’m very interested in material and
technique, so I can respond.
I have been practicing textile print with
serigraphy for a long time. We know this
technique from the early 20th century when
pop art worked with photo exposure, but
this technique had its beginning in the Far
East, working with silk paper. Using paper
stencils allows me to work quickly and
spontaneously (see page 23). Doing so, I
can avoid a lot of chemicals, which is good
for the environment and my health. An even
color and sharp contours are typical for this
technique. Apart from painting, collage, and
sheet metal sculptures, silkscreen printing is
a recurrent point in my life.
I have organized an open house in my
studio two times a year for a long time. In
2001 at an event in my studio, I asked Jan
Houtermans to join my exhibition with his
very special paper and bamboo kites. He
suggested he help me build my own kite
using printed cotton. So I printed a sail and
he told me where to put the sticks, the
reinforcements, and the bridle. So I did, the
kite flew well, and I made another one (see
page 24). After that, I was still curious about
which material and form can fly.
I started to concentrate on the idea of
cooperating with wind. Wind? Wind force?
Changing movement?
Curious, I went on to research by trial and
error what forms can fly. Interestingly, not so
much error showed up – it flies more that
we think.
The material was clear: cotton or similar
fabric. It is not very often used in the kite
world, so I had to experience it on my own.
Many people told me that this material is
too heavy and it will get loose, but the
practice showed it is not so.
The weight is not so important for the flying
qualities. There is also the aspect of how
densely the fabric is woven and how
smooth the fibers are. Time after time, wash
by machine and the wind does the ironing.
Cotton kites are more tolerant with gusty
winds. I learned that even four-liners can be
made of this material.
The best feeling you can have is to fly a new
kite the first time. It is exciting, and more
other ideas turn up.
To start the construction of a new kite, I
draw a simple sketch and then I start
printing (see page 25). I never use graph
paper. I just cut the sail freehand, taking
care of the symmetry. Doing the sewing, I
continued on page 26
22

Collaction
From a paper stencil cut with a knife, the form attaches to
the silkscreen when it gets contact with the color.
23

Collaction
My first kites, Numero Uno and Blödfritz(”Stupid Fritz”),
both about 1.5m x 3m. The color I use has very good
UV- resistance and they didn’t lose luminosity.
24

Collaction
Monsterheads and sewing machine, with sketch inset.
25

think, “Oh, it will be up in the sky all
alone,” and make some reinforcements.
Maybe I have the understanding of the
relationship between material and
dimension or just luck. To show the
workflow, let’s have an eye on the Pyjamen
kites (see page 27). The span is nearly six
meters. Every kite has its own pattern, due
to my work as a fabric designer. Because
every kite has different cloth, and therefore
a different amount of printed surface and a
slight deviation in the proportions, it has a
different flying behavior that makes his
character. Steady winds allow them to fly
together, although they are constructed for
different winds. The performances with the
Pyjas is special.
In Austria we seldom have good constant
wind. So I thought, “I want to make some
kites especially for this sort of wind.” I
decided to modify the Thai snake. The long
tail would give more support in a changing
wind, but the movement would be still very
fidgety. I thought about which design could
support such a scene: a group of young
impatient boys standing in line (see page
28). They come into play by gusty strong
winds flying them in a chain. They are
jostling and peeking. Great fun. This is for
me proof that the right design can help
when the wind circumstances are not
perfect!
In 2012, Ramlal Tien and Anna Rubin
organized an artist in residence program
with several artists in the park of a Norman
castle. I started to think about an
installation. Concerned that huge, old trees
and shrubs would cause completely
irregular wind, I remembered the German
word windsbraut. It means on the one hand
a figure of Nordic myth. On the other hand
it means turbulence.
My eolic (”of the wind”) installations, “Die
Windsbräute,” were fixed on the vertical
branches of an old oak so they could
change the direction of the movement easily
(see page 29). The movement was smooth
with the right timing. A wonderful side
effect appeared: when there was no wind
they started to pick their noses and to
scratch their ears. They followed us to
different places and landscapes, and once
they ended up disco dancing in Croatia.
Taking part in kite festivals, I met many
artists beginning my kite career in Cervia at
the Arte Vento Festival in Italy. Claudio
Capelli and his daughter Catarina are
constantly supporting the small niche for
artists that want to take issue with eolic art. I
remember that also at other festivals artists
moved closer to get a view of special
combinations and to give the audience the
chance to get a sense for art in the sky.
The multitude of creations is amazing. I
recognized that these people were very
open-minded. They accepted other styles
with curiosity and sympathy, just happy that
there was another facet of creativity in the
sky. Of course there are some divas, trying
to set up concurrence atmosphere, like it
always is on the ground. But the number of
them is obviously small. So many nations
and generations meet and share wind
condition and environs.
Also the discrepancy between small and
fragile kites and bigger constructions is
easily solved: the small in the foreground
and the bigger higher up make a wonderful
view in the sky, and the tendency to think in
hierarchies never showed up. This process is
developing more and more, for example to
help each other to do a flying show.
Does the sky make us more open-minded or
does this happens just by chance?
Nevertheless, it is worth it to interact in this
interesting climate. ◆
26

Collaction
Pyjamargot jumping over the crane, with sketch inset.
27

Collaction
The Boys, five meters long fresh from my printing table.
INSET: Gusty strong winds fly them in a chain.
28

Collaction
Schetch kites: A bride needs veil, train and lace. Fixed on
fishing rods, the form should be simple to preserve
the vague appearance. Sketch inset.
29

KITES, THE ART OF USING
NATURAL MATERIALS
Scott Skinner
A REVIEW OF:
Kites, The Art of Using Natural Materials
by John Browning
Culicidae Press, 2015
Having come full circle in my own kitemaking,
finding the beauty and utility of paper and
bamboo after years of “festival kites” in ripstop
and fiberglass, John Browning’s new book
strikes a chord within my kitemaking soul. The
use of natural materials is hardly new. The kites
of Muna Island, Indonesia, perhaps the first
kites in the world, were made with only plant
material for both kite and line. But John brings
us into the contemporary kite world with his
creative use of leaves, seeds, natural papers,
and bamboo.
The book is really a picture book of many of
John’s kites, but don’t think there is no hard
information to be had. John gives a complete
list of materials used in every kite, and
although his description of material
preparation is limited, he tells us the most
important thing: it takes time, patience, and
experimentation with every material to
discover the best way to end with a viable sail
material. John’s kite shapes are a mix of
creative and traditional and give the reader a
glimpse into John’s active imagination. I
particularly like his more traditional shapes
and those that are evocative of Polynesian and
Maori designs.
Perhaps the most powerful aspect of the book
is that it clearly shows the kite artist’s most
continued on page 34
30

John Browning
Diptera: Open spaces within the confines of a
minimal frame. I love it because it is another
of the endless three-stick kite variations.
31

John Browning
LEFT: Manu Pakau: Flying human form much like the Maori
Te Manu Tukutuku. RIGHT: Photinia Tiers: Another regular kite
shape highlighted by open spaces and irregular edges.
32

John Browning
LEFT: Indo 1: A straightforward design, layering of leaves,
irregular edges, and play of light all contribute to this kite’s
beauty. RIGHT: Sorbus Wings: Layering, different materials,
and an elegant winged shape make this a lovely soaring bird.
33

powerful tool: light. The clearlyphotographed
kites are often shown back-lit
so that kite structure, layering, and sailmaterial
differences are immediately
noticed. It is the nature of these materials
that every leaf is different, every shape is
variable, but to then layer and pattern the
plant material in creative ways, the magic is
revealed. Subtle shades of color, patternsupon-patterns,
and unexpected edges all
emerge to make each kite a specific and
powerful statement.
I’m drawn to several kites that are clearly
inspired by the Japanese; John’s Autumn in
Suruga, Bo Tree 8, Eucalyptus, and
Phormium Sode. But John’s more creative
forms that feature open space within the
kite form, asymmetry, and dramatic
differences in sail densities are inspiring and
thought-provoking (see Cordyline Aspect,
Disci, Falling Keys, Periwinkle Drop, and
Phormium Figures, to name a few). Through
it all though, I find myself coming back to
John’s winged, bird-like, or flying-human
kites. They are at once delicate, powerful,
evocative and graceful: Andes, Beech Indo,
Manu Pakau, Sorbus Wings, Sprinter, and
Winged Orb.
This is not a how-to book. John does not go
into detail on either material preparation or
kite construction, but there is certainly a
wealth of information that can be gleaned
from the pages of Kites, and the value of
John’s beautifully documented work is its
power of inspiration. The forms, the
materials, the ethic of recycling and reusing,
all give the kitemaker within us ideas,
techniques, and motivation to follow John
or to travel new kitemaking roads.
www.culicidaepress.com ◆
34

THE EXPERIMENTS OF 1899:
WILBUR AND ORVILLE
WRIGHT FLY A KITE
Tom D. Crouch
The names of the places where Wilbur and
Orville Wright made history are familiar to
people everywhere who know and cherish the
story of the invention of the airplane. The
brothers tested their first kite/glider at Kitty
Hawk, North Carolina in 1900, then shifted
their seasonal camp four miles south to the Kill
Devils Hills, where they flew from 1901 to
1903. They perfected their invention at
Huffman Prairie, eight miles east of Dayton, in
1904 and 1905, and opened their flying field
there in 1910.
Wilbur astonished the world with his first
public flights from the race course at
Hunaudieres, France, in the high summer of
1908, while Orville demonstrated the airplane
to the Army trials at Ft. Myer, Virginia in 1908
and 1909. Wilbur taught the first three U.S.
Army airmen to fly in 1909 at College Park,
Maryland. And there are other familiar places,
from Gardiner’s Island in New York Harbor,
where Wilbur took off for his flight around the
Statue of Liberty in 1909, to a field near
Montgomery, Alabama, where Orville made
the first night flights and began to instruct the
young men who would fly as members of the
Wright exhibition team.
Library of Congress
Ironically, the precise spot where Wilbur tested
their first experimental aircraft is unknown to
all but the most knowledgeable students of
Wright lore. Many of the circumstances
surrounding that first Wright flight test remain
hazy. Over a century after the Wright brothers
began their period of active experimentation
with the flights of their wing-warping kite of
35

1899, the time has come to clarify the
record of those initial experiments.
In February 1912, when Wilbur Wright was
asked how he became involved in the flying
machine problem, he responded that a local
news article announcing “…the death of
Lilienthal… [August 10, 1896] brought the
subject to our attention and led us to make
some inquiry for books relating to flight.”
“But the only serious books we found
were by Prof. [Etienne Jules] Marey and
these related to the mechanism of birdflight
rather than human flight. As our
interest at that time was mere curiosity as
to what had been done, we did not
pursue the subject further when we failed
to find books relating to human flight.” 1
Orville Wright recalled that their early
interest was a bit more serious than that.
“From the date of the death of Lilienthal,”
he remarked, “we were so interested [in
aeronautics] that we discussed matters in
this line almost daily.” 2 As Wilbur
explained, their smoldering interest in flight
finally burst into flame in June 1899. It was
“…while reading a book on Ornithology
that we became interested in studying the
appearance and habits of birds, but it soon
occurred to us that the really interesting
thing about birds was their power of flight.” 3
“Our own growing belief that men might
nevertheless learn to fly was based on the
idea that while thousands of creatures of
the most dissimilar bodily structures,
such as insects, fishes, reptiles, birds and
mammals, were every day flying through
the air at pleasure, it was reasonable to
suppose that men might also fly. Of
course, there might be, and doubtless
would be, many serious difficulties to be
overcome, but we thought that by
learning what these difficulties were and
finding methods of overcoming them, the
problems of human flight might be
solved, and we thought that probably the
cheapest and best way to take up the
subject would be to acquaint ourselves
with the troubles which others had met in
attempting to solve the problem.”
On May 30, 1899, Wilbur Wright wrote a
letter to the Smithsonian Institution. “I am
an enthusiast,” he explained, “but not a
crank in the sense that I have some pet
theories as to the proper construction of a
flying machine.” Noting that he was “…
about to begin a systematic study of the
subject in preparation for practical work to
which I expect to devote what time I can
spare from my regular business,” he
requested “such papers as the Smithsonian
Institution has published on this subject,
and if possible a list of other works in print
in the English language.” 4
Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian
Richard Rathbun replied just three days
later. It was a testament both to the speed of
the U.S. Postal Service in the closing years
of the old century, and to the Smithsonian’s
emphasis on rapid response to public
inquiries, even by officials at the highest
levels of the Institution. Moreover, the
response was full and satisfying. Rathbun
provided the Wrights with free copies of
four Smithsonian reprints: translated extracts
from Louis Mouillard’s Empire of the Air;
Otto Lilienthal, The Problem of Flying and
Practical Experiments in Soaring; Samuel P;.
Langley, The Story of Experiments in
Mechanical Flight; and E.C. Huffaker, On
Soaring Flight. He also included a list of
recommended publications on the subject,
including S.P. Langley, Experiments in
Aerodynamics; Octave Chanute’s Progress
in Flying Machines, and the 1895, 1896,
and 1897 issues of The Aeronautical
Annual.
Wilbur immediately replied, thanking
36

Rathbun for the pamphlets and enclosing a
dollar for the Langley volume. An entry for
the second week in June, 1899 in the ledger
in which the Wrights kept a meticulous
account of the receipts and expenditures of
the bicycle shop includes an expenditure of
$5.50 “for books on flying.” In addition to
ordering the Langley book, the brothers
must have taken Rathbun’s advice and
purchased the Chanute volume and the
available issues of the Aeronautical Annual,
as well. 5
The spring of 1899 had been a busy time for
the residents of No. 7 Hawthorne Street,
Dayton, Ohio. The pater familias, seventyone
year old Bishop Milton Wright, as
usual, spent a great deal of time on the
road, visiting far flung congregations,
calling on relatives in Ohio and Indiana,
and attending church conferences. When at
home, he made periodic visits to the dentist
who was fitting him with a “vulcanized”
upper plate; supervised the workmen who
were refurbishing the kitchen and the “east
room” of the house; and handled family
business, including the sale of timber on an
Indiana farm.
But there was always time for his
grandchildren, especially his son Lorin’s
eldest boy and girl, Milton and Ivonette,
who lived just around the corner on Horace
Street. At young Milton’s request, he took
them on walks to their grandmother’s grave
in lovely Woodland Cemetery. On May 10,
1899, the three of them cheered from the
upper story windows of a church office as
Col. William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody paraded
his Wild West Show through the streets of
Dayton. Grandfather and grandchildren
alike were looking forward to fireworks on
the Fourth of July.
It was a busy spring for twenty-four year old
Katharine Wright, as well. Katie, as her
father and friends knew her, was the only
college graduate in the family, Oberlin,
class of ’98. Recently “elected” a teacher of
English and Latin on the regular faculty of
Central High School, she spent the spring
and summer preparing for and enjoying her
high school reunion and entertaining
visiting college friends. She and a group of
friends hosted a supper for a visiting
Oberlin professor on May 20. A college
chum, Margaret “Mag” Goodwin, arrived
for a visit after June 8. The two of them took
a train for Oberlin, and their first college
reunion, on June 15.
Orville would later recall that serious
discussions of aeronautical issues were well
underway “while Miss Goodwin … was
visiting in our home.” 6 The first step was to
assess the state of the aeronautical arts. “As
to the state of the experimental knowledge
at the time we began our experiments,”
Wilbur explained:
“…we reached the conclusion that the
p r o b l e m o f c o n s t r u c t i n g w i n g s
sufficiently strong to carry the weight of
the machine itself, along with that of the
motor and of the aviator and also of
constructing sufficiently light motors
were sufficiently worked out to present
no serious difficulty; but that the problem
of equilibrium had been the real
stumbling block in all serious attempts to
solve the problem of human flight, and
that this problem of equilibrium in reality
constituted the problem of flight itself.” 7
From the outset, as Wilbur explained, “we
were actively studying the means of
controlling [an] aerial apparatus in the
air….” 8 Lilienthal, the great German gliding
master had been killed when his craft went
out of control, as had Percy Pilcher, an
English experimenter. Determined to avoid
that fate, the Wrights set out to devise an
effective control system before they built
their first flying machine. They immediately
37

ecognized that the real problem related to
control in the roll axis, raising or lowering
either wingtip at will to maintain balance in
the air. “[We] …conceived the idea of
adjusting right and left wings to respective
difference angles of incidence,” Wilbur
explained, “for the purpose of controlling
lateral balance.” 9
How was that to be achieved? Orville
suggested “…mounting the wings … upon
axles extending laterally from the center of
the machine with gears attached to the two
wings meshing so that when the lever
attached to either wing was pushed forward
or backward the wings would face forward
at different angles to each other.” 10 Wilbur,
however, argued that the scheme was
impractical because of the weight of such a
m e c h a n i s m a n d t h e d i f fi c u l t y o f
incorporating it into an adequate structure.
Harriet Silliman, another one of Katharine’s
college friends, arrived for a visit on
Thursday, July 20. 11 Wilbur was working
late in the bicycle shop a day or so later,
while Orville and Katie were off somewhere
entertaining Miss Silliman.
“One evening while studying the
movements of a little square paper tube
which I was using for the purpose of
noting the movements of one side which
I conceived to represent the upper plane
of a double deck structure and the
opposite side which I conceived to
represent the lower plane, I noticed that
the upper plane could be moved bodily
forward or backward with reference to
the lower plane which would be useful in
controlling the fore and aft equilibrium of
the apparatus, or if the top plane were
moved forward at one end and backward
at the other the whole structure would be
twisted so that the right ends of the plane
would be pulled down at the rear while
the left ends would be elevated. Thus
each plane would assume a screw form
or helicoid and the right wing would
have a greater angle than the left wing.” 12
By twisting or “warping” the wing in that
fashion, the operator would increase or
decrease the angle of attack, and the
amount of lift, on one side or the other,
banking into a turn, or simply restoring
lateral balance.
When Orville returned home with the ladies
later that evening, Wilbur was waiting with
the box. “By marking vertical and diagonal
lines on the … two vertical walls… [Wilbur]
represented the upright posts and the
diagonal truss wires of a superposed
aeroplane.” 13 Wilbur carefully positioned
his index fingers and thumbs on either end
of the box and twisted. Orville recalled that
they became “…very enthusiastic….” 14
Wilbur then proceeded to build “…a little
model made out of bamboo having lateral
spars and upright standards connecting
them, the whole being braced by truss
threads.” 15 It was an even clearer
demonstration of the warping principle, and
indicated a means of incorporating the
technique into an actual structure.
His next step was to design, build, and test
their first real aircraft, a kite that would
enable them to test their control system in
the air. “The kite had two slightly curved
planes,” Wilbur explained, “about thirteen
inches from front to rear, and about five feet
from tip to tip, one being placed above the
other and connected to it by two rows of
upright standards, one near the front edge
and the other row near the back edge.”
Wilbur attached the upright struts to the
wings with flexible connections, “…so that
the top plane could be thrown forward or
backward with reference to the lower
plane.” 16 continued on page 40
38

Library of Congress
Side view of glider flying as a kite near the ground, Wilbur at
left and Orville at right, glider turned forward to right and
tipped downward.
39

A single rod attached to the mod-point of
the middle rear strut supported a
rectangular, horizontal elevator. When the
top surface of the kite moved forward or
backward, the trailing edge of the elevator
rose or fell to assist the kite in climbing or
diving.
Orville knew that the classic box kite,
introduced by the Australian Lawrence
Hargrave in 1892, offered a light, strong
aeronautical structure. Such kites were
braced across the front and back with light
wires forming a Pratt Truss, a classic
American bridge truss, and across both
ends. In 1896, the Chicago engineer Octave
Chanute had sponsored successful flight
tests of a hang glider based on that pattern.
If the wire bracing on the ends was
removed, it would enable the top surface to
move to the front or rear of the lower wing,
causing the kite to climb or dive. The wings
could also be twisted for lateral control, like
the box and the bamboo model, but could
not move to the right or left.
Control lines leading to wooden sticks in
the operator’s hands could be connected to
the top and bottom of the outside front
struts on both the right and left sides. The
lines on the right and left were crossed, so
that the operator could tip the top of the
two sticks in his hand forward to allow the
top wing to move back, causing the kite to
climb. Pointing the top of both sticks to the
rear would cause a dive, and pointing the
top of one stick forward and the other to the
rear would cause the kite to bank in one
direction or the other. It would be the first
flying machine of any kind capable of
maneuvering under the control of the pilot.
The structure of the 1899 Wright kite was
built entirely of pine. The wings were
covered with fabric and sealed with
shellac. 17 An examination of the ledger
book in which the Wrights recorded all of
their income and expenditures reveals a
number of interesting purchases that might
have been related to the kite, including
several entries for ten cents worth of muslin,
and Wilbur’s purchase of a ten cent ball of
string in the last week in July or the first in
August. In any case, the book records that
Wilbur reported a great many unspecified
expenditures during late July, any of which
might have been related to the kite. 18
Wilbur later recalled that he was at work on
the kite “within a few days” of having
experimented with the cardboard box and
the bamboo structure. “The actual work on
the kite was done mostly by myself,”
although “…it embodied the results of
numerous conversations between us.” 19
While Orville was helping Katharine
entertain their guest, Wilbur spent long
hours at the bicycle shop, waiting on
customers, performing repairs, and
constructing his kite. “I was not able to be
present when the structure was flown as a
kite, but I operated the machine in … our
store before it was taken out to be flown,”
Orville recalled. “My brother held the kite
in his hands while I warped the wings by
means of the four cords.”
Katharine, Harriet, Orville, and a group of
other friends left for a camping trip at a spot
near Dayton’s Fairview Park during the first
week in August, 1899. The party returned
home on August 7, the first Monday of the
month. 20 The tests of the kite, Wilbur
recalled, were prior to the trip. Orville
agreed with his brother, recalling that he
had returned from the camping trip on
Tuesday, August 8, and that Wilbur had
visited him in camp on Sunday, August 6, at
which point they discussed the kite tests
that had been conducted prior to his
departure. In the late summer of 1899 the
Wrights did not have an assistant who could
man the bicycle shop in their absence.
Presumably, Orville did not witness the kite
40

tests because he had to mind the store. 21
Wilbur reported that he flew the kite “a
number of times about the end of July.” 22
He had given the question of where to fly it
considerable thought, and selected an open
area on the grounds of the Union
Theological Seminary, at the corner of West
First Street and Euclid Avenue in Dayton,
Ohio. “This field is now part of the city,”
Wilbur explained in a deposition offered
just a month before his death. “But at that
time [it was] a retired place where I thought
no one would intrude.” 23
Officials of the Church of the United
Brethren in Christ opened the doors of the
impressive three-story structure in 1878.
Since that time, it had become a landmark
on the western edge of Dayton. Eight years
before, Katharine, then a high school
student, had mentioned the place in an
essay describing the sites encountered by
passengers on a horse car traveling east
along West Third Street. Having begun the
journey at the Third Street car barns, and
passed the already historic Miami City
school, the tour guide directed the attention
of her readers to the next noteworthy site
along the route.
“To the left, about two squares distant, is
another school, sometimes irreverently
called “the preacher factory.” Its official
name is Union Biblical Seminary. It
stands in the center of a beautiful campus
on high ground overlooking the valley of
Wolf Creek, and is the first building to
attract the eye of travelers entering the
city by railroad from the west.” 24
Wilbur remarked that he had flown the kite
more than once. The fact that the drawings
of the kite which he prepared for use during
a deposition on the morning of March 30,
1912, show a short section of pipe tied to
the center forward strut certainly indicates
that he had flown it enough to realize that it
was tail heavy.
In spite of Wilbur’s desire for privacy, there
were witnesses to the tests. Fred Fansher
recalled that he had been flying kites with
ten or twelve other boys in an empty lot
adjacent to the Seminary at the corner of
Summit and West First, when Wilbur Wright
walked by carrying “…what looked to us
like a peculiar sort of box kite.” Curious, the
boys pulled their own kites down and
followed Wilbur onto the Seminary
grounds. 25
John Myers remembered that Wilbur had
asked him to hold the kite as far above his
head as he could and to let it go when
instructed. “There was quite a big wind that
day,” he noted. “I recall that when he tilted
the planes the kite came down very rapidly,
darted in other words…. He made several
attempts and then boxed it up and put it
away.” 26
John Reiniger had been there, as well. “At
times it would have a tendency to come
down.” He recalled, “which would be
overcome by the manipulation of the sticks
in Mr. Wright’s hands.” Once, he
remembered, the kite had gotten completely
out of control and swooped down to the
ground. 27
Of course, Wilbur gave Orville a detailed
account of the tests. Several days later, John
Reiniger and his brother Walter stopped by
the bike shop and provided what we can
safely assume to have been a spirited
description of the proceedings. “According
to Wilbur’s account of the tests,” Orville
remarked, “the model worked very
successfully.”
“It responded promptly to the warping of
the surfaces, always lifting the wing that
had the larger angle [of incidence].
41

Several times, according to Wilbur’s
account to me, when he shifted the upper
surface backward by the manipulation of
the sticks attached to flying cords, the
nose of the machine turned downward as
was intended; but in diving downward it
created a slack in the flying cords, so that
he was not able to control it further. The
model made such a rapid dive to the
ground that the small boys present fell on
their faces to avoid being hit, not having
time to run.” 28
During the course of a series of patent suits
that began in 1909 and ran for over a
decade, the origins and operation of the
1899 kite would repeatedly become a
matter of some legal importance. It was,
after all, the starting point of the Wright
experiments. As a result, the brothers were
forced to reconstruct events that had
occurred more than a decade before, and
which seemed much more important in
hindsight than they had at the time. In
general, their method of dating the small
steps leading to the kite tests involved
remembering the comings and goings of
guests, the camping trip and other
household events occurring at the same
time.
There is one puzzling anomaly, however.
The brothers relied on their father’s
meticulous diary to establish a basic
timeline of events in the Wright household
during the spring and summer of 1899. In
his entry for July 7, Bishop Wright reports
that his grandson Milton visited that
evening, “to see the flying machine.” 29
According to the chronology reconstructed
by the brothers, however, there was no
“flying machine” in early July. The incident
with the paper box, which set everything in
motion, did not occur until on or about July
20. Perhaps young Milton came to look at
pictures of flying machines in the books and
pamphlets that his uncles had recently
acquired.
In addition to reconstructing the weeks
when they had taken their first steps toward
the invention of the airplane, the Wrights
had to locate witnesses who could testify to
having seen the kite maneuvering in the air.
Some of the boys were easy enough to find.
John Reiniger was still living in Dayton, as
were Fred Fansher, who was serving as
Secretary of the Chamber of Commerce in
1912, and John Myers, who had become an
electrician. The Wrights wrote letters to
other men, now living as close as Cincinnati
and as far away as Georgetown, Texas,
whom they thought might have been among
the ten or a dozen youngsters who had seen
the kite fly thirteen years before. 30
Apparently, there were no responses.
Opposing counsel in the various patent suits
would also express curiosity with regard to
the ultimate fate of the objects that had
played such an important role in the initial
involvement of the Wright brothers in
aviation. “I do not think that we have parts
of any of our kites or gliders before the
motor aeroplanes [sic] of 1903,” Wilbur
explained. 31 While he did not actually
remember, he presumed that the little
bamboo model had been “thrown in the
waste basket or wood box.” 32
“The kite remained about the store for three
or four years,” Wilbur recalled, “and was
used at various times in making experiments
with an automatic stabilizer.” During one of
those tests, probably in 1905, “…it was so
badly broken that no attempt was made to
rebuild it.” 33 The 1899 kite had outlived its
historic progeny, the l900, 1901, and 1902
Wright gliders. Like them, however, it
ultimately found its way into “the waste
basket or wood box.”
“Following these flights [of the 1899 kite],”
continued on page 44
42

Library of Congress
Wilbur Wright’s drawing of the 1899 kite with the surfaces
warped. It is in the public domain, drawn from his testimony
in the patent suit, as reproduced in McFarland, The Papers of
Wilbur and Orville Wright (McGraw-Hill, 1953).
43

Wilbur recalled, “we decided to build a
much larger kite sufficient to support a man,
and we made a search for grounds in the
vicinity of Dayton but found nothing that
suited us.” 34 This time they would have to
look a bit farther afield than the Union
Theological Seminary. Just a year later, on
Thursday, September 6, 1900, Wilbur
Wright boarded a Big Four train at Dayton’s
Union Station. He was bound for Elizabeth
City, North Carolina, where he would hire a
boat to carry him across Albermarle Sound
to the little village of Kitty Hawk, on the
Outer Banks of North Carolina. Safely
packed away in the baggage car were the
prefabricated makings of the 1900 kite/
glider, the first full-scale Wright airplane.
The freight charge was $2.53, several times
the cost of the small kite that had started it
all. 35
SIXTEEN YEARS LATER
I wrote this essay 16 years ago, in the spring
of 1999, as a first step toward the
Centennial of Powered Flight, which I
assumed would be celebrated with great
fanfare in 2003. The kite experiments of
1899, so often overlooked by historians,
marked the serious entry of these two
Dayton men into aeronautics, a field in
which they would write their names large
across the sky. The essay was an experiment
in microhistory, an attempt to see just how
much detail I could uncover about those
few weeks in the summer of 1899. Rereading
it now, I found the need to do some
re-writing, not to correct errors, but to
clarify what occurred and to put those
events in a bit more context.
I am more than pleased that my friends from
the Drachen Foundation have chosen to
offer the revised version to a new
generation of readers in their online journal.
I enjoyed re-visiting my own account of the
story, and am grateful to have been able to
make some improvements. My thanks to Ali
Fujino and Scott Skinner for the invitation,
and to editor Katie Davis who helped make
it more presentable.
Tom Crouch
Chantilly, Virginia
October 6, 2015 ◆
44

ENDNOTES
1. Wilbur Wright testimony, U.S. District Court, Western
Division of New York. The Wright Company vs. Herring-
Curtiss Co. and Glenn H. Curtiss. In Equity No. 400.
Complainant’s Record. Vol. 1, pg. 474.
2. Orville Wright deposition, The United States District
Court, Southern District of Ohio, Western Division,
Charles H. Lamson vs. The Wright Company, In Equity No.
6,611, pg. 78, Defendant’s Copy, The Papers of Wilbur and
Orville Wright, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress,
box 63.
3. Wilbur Wright testimony, Wright Company vs. Herring-
Curtiss Co. and Glenn H. Curtiss, Vol. 1, pg. 474.
4. W. Wright to the Smithsonian Institution, May 30, 1899,
in McFarland, PWOW., vol. 1, pg. 4-5.
5. Entry for June 15 (?), 1899, 1899 ledger book, Box 77,
pg. 13, Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright, Manuscript
Division, Library of Congress.
6. Lamson vs. the Wright Company, pg. 78.
7. Wilbur Wright testimony, Wright Company vs. Herring-
Curtiss Co. and Glenn H. Curtiss, Vol. 1, pg. 478.
8. Lamson vs. the Wright Company, pg. 14.
9. Lamson vs. the Wright Company, pg. 14.
10. Ibid., 78.
11. Bishop Milton Wright, Diary, Paul Lawrence Dunbar
Library, Wright State University.
12. Wilbur Wright, Lamson vs. Wright, pgs. 14-15.
13. Orville Wright, Lamson vs. Wright, pg. 79.
14. Ibid.
15. Wilbur Wright, Lamson vs. Wright, pg. 15.
16. Wilbur Wright, Lamson vs. Wright, pg. 16.
17. Wilbur Wright to Octave Chanute, August 10, 1900, in
McFarland, Papers, vol. 1, pg. 22.
18. For the string see: 1899 ledger book, pg. 59, Wright
Papers, Box 77.
19. Wilbur Wright, Lamson vs. Wright, pg. 17.
21. For Orville’s recollections see, “Orville Wright on the
Wright experiments of 1899,” in Marvin W. McFarland,
ed., The Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright (New York:
McGraw-Hill and Company, 1953), vol. 1, pg. 11.
22. Wilbur Wright, Lamson vs. Wright, pg. 16.
23. Wilbur Wright, Lamson vs. Wright, pg. 17.
24. Katharine Wright, “Rambles in Miami City,” [Central]
High School Times, December 1891, pg. 7.
25. Deposition of Frederick W. Fansher, Dayton, Ohio,
February 2, 1921, Regina Cleary Montgomery et al. vs. the
United States, Court of Claims of the United States, No.
33852. Typed copy of the deposition in the John J.
Montgomery biographical file, National Air and Space
Museum. See also Fansher’s earlier deposition, in Lamson
vs. Wright, pg. 90.
26. Deposition of John K. Myers, Dayton, Ohio, February
2, 1921, Regina Cleary Montgomery et al. vs. the United
States, Court of Claims of the United States, No. 33852.
Typed copy of the deposition in the John J. Montgomery
biographical file, National Air and Space Museum.
27. Deposition of John D. Reiniger, Lamson vs. Wright, pg.
95.
28. “Orville Wright on the Wright experiments of 1899,” in
McFarland, ed., Papers, vol. 1, pg. 11.
29. Bishop Milton Wright, Diary, July 7, 1899, Paul
Lawrence Dunbar Library, Wright State University.
30. Wright brothers to Horace Hiscy, April 13, 1912;
Wright brothers to Joseph Scholl, April 13, 1912; Wright
brothers to Horace Drury, April 13, 1912, all in The Papers
of Wilbur and Orville Wright, Manuscript Division, Library
of Congress, box 63, materials relating to Lamson vs.
Wright.
31. Wilbur Wright, Lamson vs. Wright, pg. 49.
32. Ibid.
33. Ibid., pg. 17.
34. Ibid.
35. For freight charge see: 1900 ledger book, pg. 153,
Wright Papers, Box 77.
20. Orville Wright, testimony, U.S. District Court, Western
Division of New York. The Wright Company vs. Herring-
Curtiss Co. and Glenn H. Curtiss. In Equity No. 400.
Complainant’s Record. Vol. 1, pg. 807. “While Miss S. Was
visiting us we spent a few days camping north of the city,
that is, my sister, Miss S- and I camped with some
friends…. We were camping about one week and we
returned to Dayton, as I remember it, the first Monday of
August 1899.”
45

MIKIO TOKI
Scott Skinner
Kitefliers in Colorado have been lucky for the
last two years because of the Japan America
Society of Colorado and their commitment to
h o s t i n g a k i t e fl y i n t h e S t a p l e t o n
neighborhood of Denver during the annual
Denver Days celebration throughout the city.
With the help of Denver’s Japanese Consulate,
the Society brought kitemaker Mikio Toki to
the event both years. Undaunted by Toki-san’s
late arrival in 2014 (where I was thrown in to
do kitemaking workshops and Toki-san was
only able to spend one day flying kites), this
year Toki was able to lecture and demonstrate
during an opening reception, lead morning
and afternoon workshop sessions, and spend a
full day flying kites on the old Stapleton
Airport grounds. Beautiful, calm August
weather conspired to keep us all grounded for
a good portion of the day, but using mile-high
breezes that came and went, we were all able
to have some magical flying moments. Toki’s
presence has ensured that George Peters,
Melanie Walker, and I have been on a
Colorado kite-field for two consecutive years –
a new record!
Scott Skinner
Japanese kitemaker Mikio Toki has been important
to the preservation of Japanese kite culture both
in Japan and internationally.
Toki’s visits to Colorado have reminded me of
how important he has been to the preservation
of Japanese kite culture both in Japan and
internationally. Like a kitemaker of 100 years
ago, Toki-san is still commissioned during
traditional kite seasons (Children’s Day, New
Year) to make special kites for children and
adults. Unlike his predecessors, kitemaking in
today’s Japan cannot truly be a full-time job.
Luckily for the international kite community,
continued on page 51
46

Scott Skinner
Like a kitemaker of 100 years ago, Toki-san is commissioned
during traditional kite seasons to make special kites.
47

Scott Skinner
Always willing to share his extensive knowledge of the Tokyo
kite tradition, Toki-san has been a mentor to many.
48

Mikio Toki
Examples of Toki-san’s paper and silk kite paintings.
49

Mikio Toki
Examples of Toki-san’s larger kite works.
50

Toki-san travels extensively to festivals,
workshops, and cultural events to share his
knowledge and to supplement his income.
Always willing to share his extensive
knowledge of the Tokyo kite tradition, Tokisan
has been a mentor to many of us who
are interested in the Edo kite forms. He has
the hands-on experience and the shared
knowledge of his Tokyo predecessors to
explain the subtleties of the Edo kite and to
demonstrate their wonderful flying
characteristics. Toki-san playfully described
spending months on one of his first large
Edo-dakos. After skillful painting,
painstaking bamboo-work, and careful
bridling, on the first flight the kite overflew
and crashed dramatically!
Toki-san is no stranger to new ideas and
techniques. He has shown us new Japanese
paper that is as strong as Tyvek. The new
“magic paper” has an internal grid or
lattice, and painting techniques have to be
experimented with, but the paper transmits
light beautifully and can be sewed, glued,
or stapled onto a kite frame of any material.
Toki-san can also create his own stronger
paper using traditional methods, laminating
paper to cotton scrim or to silk. This
technique provides a different painting
surface that results in a more matte-looking
finish.
Toki-san’s craftsmanship has become
spectacular after his many years of
experience. In his small kites that you might
expect some “corners to be cut,” you’ll find
no such thing. Every bridle is perfect,
bamboo is finished and consistent, and the
paintings show maturity and power in the
simplest of images.
www.mikiotoki.com/english1.htm
www.asahi-net.or.jp/~ea8a-tkkw/toki.html
www.facebook.com/mikio.toki ◆
51

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