What Are Miya Ando's Projects with Saint Laurent and The MIT Press?

Updated

Miya Ando's site lists two named projects: Saint Laurent x Miya Ando, a collaboration with the fashion house, and Rain Dictionary: The MIT Press, the book project published as Water of the Sky: A Dictionary of 2,000 Japanese Rain Words. The first is a commercial brand collaboration; the second is a trade art book. Both appear under the "Projects" section of miyaando.com, alongside her artworks, exhibitions, bibliography, and talks.

Saint Laurent x Miya Ando

This is a collaboration between the artist and Saint Laurent. The site presents it as a project entry rather than as a standalone exhibition or publication, which places it in the brand-collaboration category of Ando's practice rather than in her gallery or museum work.

The available page evidence does not specify the medium, date, product line, or scope of the collaboration. If you need those details — for example, whether it involved textiles, accessories, a campaign, or an installation — the project page itself is the place to check, since the homepage listing only names the collaboration.

Rain Dictionary: The MIT Press

This project is the publication of Water of the Sky: A Dictionary of 2,000 Japanese Rain Words, released by The MIT Press. It is the more fully documented of the two projects.

What the book contains

  • 2,000 Japanese words for rain, each with an approximate English equivalent
  • 100 drawings in indigo by Ando
  • A foreword by Hollis Goodall, with Joan Halifax also credited
  • Bilingual presentation, with the full index of 2,000 terms arranged alphabetically using a hybrid Japanese-English alphabetization rubric

The word range is deliberately wide. Examples given in the publisher's description include:

Japanese term Meaning as described
mukaame very fine rain that falls in spring
bunryūu rain that splits a dragon's body in half
kisame raindrops that fall off the leaves and branches of trees
takuu blessed rain that quenches all things in the universe

Ando's drawings are described not as literal illustrations but as "evocations" — attempts to embody the specific quality of each kind of rain.

Publication details

  • Publisher: The MIT Press
  • Format: Hardcover, 280 pp., 6 x 8 in, 100 color illustrations
  • Publication date: November 4, 2025
  • Second printing: available April 2026

Recognition

  • 2026 First Horizon Award, Eric Hoffer Award
  • 2026 Eric Hoffer Book Award Winner, Art Category
  • 2025 Foreword INDIES Awards Winner, Art (Adult Nonfiction)

How the two projects differ

Saint Laurent x Miya Ando Rain Dictionary: The MIT Press
Type Brand collaboration Book publication
Partner Saint Laurent The MIT Press
Output Not specified on the site listing Hardcover book, 280 pp.
Documented details Name of collaboration only Contents, format, dates, awards

If your interest is in Ando's commercial and fashion-facing work, start with the Saint Laurent project. If you want a concrete, purchasable object that carries her rain imagery and Japanese rain vocabulary, Water of the Sky is the project to look at — the site's project entry links to more information and ordering through The MIT Press.