Chichibu Meisen is a double sided woven silk made in Chichibu, Saitama, Honshu. CM is made from raw, dupioni raw, floss, or spun silk made from waste cocoons and waste raw silk, and is a popular everyday silk for its durability and easy capacity to wish and reuse it.[1]
Historically CM began around the time sericulture and silk weaving was introduced from Korea or China between 300-800AD.[2] Local traditions hold that this was the local Shinto deity Chichibu Hiko-no-mikoto who did this. The local topography was heavily built up with mountains, which made rice grops difficult to grow, so sericulture eventually become the main local commodity in Chichibu. CM was at first due to its nature as a stubborn material or Futo-Ori (| Thick weave) made from waste product, worn by Chichibu farmers. In time, CM spread outside of Chichibu, and was known as Oni-chichibu, and eventually became an acceptable fabric for the Samurai class to wear due to its durability and sheen. This production was well established by the 18th century.[4]
By the 1890s, the Japanese goverment sensing the encroachment of Westernisation and seeing the effect of Western colonisation in Asia, began to promote traditional Japanese arts and art or cottage industries. These led to the promulgation of traditional trades like CM production becoming joint with technology, producing new techniques like Hogushi-Ori (Virgin Thread sorting).[4] In 1908, the first Hogushi Nassen (ほぐし捺染 | Loose silk threads first dyed and then woven) technology was patented in Japan allowing for more elaborate patterns to be created.[1] Meisen then by the 1920's with an increased production capacity due to the increase of heavy textile industry began to become worn as a staple in womens fashion, most commonly worn by the Moga (モダンガール | Modern Girl).[5] The colours of Chichibu Meisen were particularly bright, and the patterns made allowed for a greater variation in Ji-monnyu than had previously being available to Kimono designers.[4] Moga often bought these kimono in Department stores, which popularised art deco Meisen and showed the modernisation of the 'New Japan' (itself arguably an adapted Western ideology deriving from contact with Western through 1853-1876), with skyscrapers, high-speed trains, and plane motifs from 1910-1930. From 1930-1940 with the changing political landscape of Japan, these patterns frequently became more charged and tied to national patriotism, such as Meisen depicting military themes, often made in rayon, mainly in regions north of Tokyo.[6] When Longingism took hold in the court of the MacArthur shogunate, Kimono become 'the old thing to wear' so to speak and 'modern Japan' once again took off from where Old 'New Japan' had taken and production of new Meisen declined rapidly, reverting back to workwear rather than being a trendy garment from the 1960s onwards, and may have seen an uptick of resurgence as a fashion item from 1990-2009 in Japanese and foreign womens Kimono from the bright designs of Taisho Meisen kimono, a large number of which survive because they are Chichibu Meisen as part of the historical revival moment in Kimono-Hime, popularized in the west at least in the fanzine Kimono Hime.
Chichibu Meisen is made with leftover silk threads and is created by Temporal weaving, Printing, Steaming, Drying, Rollback & Weaving. Weaving is first done by sorting the white warp threads into the desired length and number and set in the loom and the weft threads wound around tubes. Temporal weaving refers to creating the desired pattern with the weft threads in the loom which prevents shrinkage during the Katazome process. The warp threads are then spread from the tubes over a printing stand and Katazome is applied to them using one stencil at a time. A frame with the pattern inside is placed atop the warp thread stand and the pattern is gradually applied by moving the frame and applying dye through the stencil with a brush. More than one colour requires the warp threads to be redyed as many times as there are colours. By dying the weft and warp threads this creates the double-sided effect or Hogushi Nassen technique of CM. The threads are then refined by immersing them in Shinsen which bonds the dye agent to the threads, then placed in a Mushibako (steam box or tube) which fixes the dye to the threads. The threads are removed and left to dry by tumble drying. The warp threads are then rolled back and check over and adjusted as needed, a process known as rollback.
Weaving is then done by setting the warp threads in the loom and sorting and loosening (Hogushi-Ori) the weft threads to fit the end pattern using hand-thrown/flying shuttles with a treadle. The shuttles slide the weft threads in the loom, auto-weaving machines and shuttle looms which replace weft threads are also used to prevent breakage. Hogushi-ori/-nassen (Loose sorting/dying) creates the double sided sheen when the warp and weft threads join in CM silks, which was valued by Samurai for its durable and shiny qualities.[1] CM is still made today in Chichibu, being regarded a Traditional Crafts of Japan in 2013; to learn more you can visit the Meisen Kan Musuem in Chichibu.[3]
Fabrics #5 will be on the wider history of Meisen fabrics, next post will be on the Dori-Kimono style.
Bibliography
[1] https://kogeijapan.com/locale/en_US/chichibumeisen/
[2] See Fabrics #3
[3] http://www.meisenkan.com/english/
[4] https://www.ana.co.jp/en/gb/japan-travel-planner/saitama/0000013.html
[5] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/235733818_Why_was_Meisen_Japan's_traditional_working_clothe_accepted_well_in_the_market_as_everyday_clothes_and_stylish_garments_between1900_to1930
[6] https://www.thecityreview.com/kimono.html
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