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Today we write some information about Japanese textiles. Sometimes, customers ask us questions like this- 'Are the items hand woven? Dyed with natural dyestuff?' People who are not interested in old textiles must think 'vintage or antique kimono must be hand woven', however, to answer correctly, we must explain a little bit of this long story. To make kimono, there are 4 steps - 1)Spin cotton/silk into thread The most valuable kimonos are thought to be made of domestic cotton/silk(0), hand spun (1), hand woven(2), dyed with natural dyestuff(3) and are hand sewn(4). An acquaintance of famous planner said to me, 'I went to Kurume for the first time, and was very disappointed because they weave kasuri with machine spun cotton threads!' He didn't know that Kurume kasuri was woven with machine spun cotton (and most of them were imported from USA or India) from the beginning of their history. He thought expensive 'hand WOVEN Kurume kasuri' had to be woven with hand spun cotton. However, if he knew the history, he should not be disappointed to know that. Today, most cotton is imported from China (or USA), and most silk is also imported from China. Most kimono fabrics are machine spun, machine woven and dyed with synthetic dyestuff. Only the sewing step is mostly hand sewn - and some of them are sewn in China or Viet Nam. Of course, some very expensive kimono textiles like Yuki Tsumugi are still hand spun and hand woven. Even Yuki Tsumugi is dyed with synthetic dyestuff and they become very expensive kimonos; costing as much as a high-end car, but most contemporary medium/low class kimono are made of machine spun yarn are machine sewn, and dyed with synthetic dyestuff. We have made a chronological table about the history of Japanese textiles. When we write 'vintage' and 'antique', we use 'antique' for kimono from Meiji period (1868-1912) or earlier and 'vintage' for kimono from WWII or earlier Meiji. So, the items which are described as 'antique' can also be 'machine spun', 'machine woven' and 'dyed with synthetic dyestuff. Some 'vintage' kimonos can be made from synthetic fabric 'jinken' (rayon). For a quick realization, please think like this
Most inventions of spinning, weaving, sewing and dyeing are made in the late Edo period, and their techniques were imported in the Meiji period and the textile industry was industrialized during the Meiji and Taisho periods. You will notice that the Taisho period is very short - only 14 years. So, if we want the fabrics to meet the above 4 requirements strictly, we have to look for contemporary kimonos (which have the guarantee) or very old kimonos from the Edo period. Of course, we can also find kimonos made from such textiles at around the Taisho/Meiji eras. For example, Yumihama Kasuri were hand spun with Japanese cotton and hand woven. We can determine they were hand spun/hand woven by checking the threads precisely; hand spun threads are not even, comparatively thick and softly twisted. We are very happy if the chronological below can help your understanding of Japanese textile history.  Please add your comment †
Please add your comment here! †Original text is written by Ichiro on 29th Nov 2009. You can read the original text in this frozen page Age of Japanese Textile(Original) This site is hosted by ICHIROYA |
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