Wool has been used in KTC as technically Tsumugi, Kasuri Ikat and Pongee weaves for over 100 years at least and was initially considered to be a luxury fabric in Japan, worn by the military and other elites.[2][5] A lot of made-in-Japan Youmou comes currently from around 20,000+ Suffolk Sheep, with the bulk of Japanese wool being imported from Australia.[2][4][6] The advent of wool in the late 19th century saw the rise of a new sleeker winter silhouette for Kimono, and new Inverness style capes being added into KTC and designs which remain popular today among Kimono revival vintage collectors and designers alike as a fashionable 'Kawaii' accessory, mostly in Merino and Muslin wools.[11]
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Wool is made as in most places by taking the yarns from mammals such as sheep, alpacas and llamas and turning the yarns into threads, dependent on the density and fibres of the yarns. These yarns are now processed by mechanical means, but before industry had reached Japan were sorted for dying and weaving. Wool is first sheared, scoured and then put through a carding machine to be spun into yarns via the worsted or woollen systems. Most of the wool we encounter in Kimono is worsted for its dense nature, but some lighter fluffier fabrics use the Woollen production system for wools like Cashmere. These yarns are wrapped around Bobbins and woven into the worsted plain weave or the woollen twill weave. Crabbing and Decating may also occur to tighten the fibers of these weaves so that they do not shrink or loosen. A Wools Crimp describes how heavy it is basically and as British worsted wool is best, is still used in futon making today for its lightweight feel which retains heat.[6][9]
Historically, Broadcloth, Grofgrain and Raxa Wool was first imported by Europeans during the Nanbanjin trade between 1613-1639. It was considered a luxury import item at the time and used as a trim of sorts for elites to make Obi and eyecatching red Jinbaori.[10][11] Raxa also became used as a fire-retardant material worn to put out fires. Worsted Serge was also used to make Kappa ( raincoat capes | 合羽). Raxa became Raseita, and Grofgrain became Gorofukurin during this time. Even Hakama were found made with Grofgrain, often in red or violet and were more costly than silk. Between 1800-1804, the Bakufu negotiated with the Dutch and Chinese to import sheep to make a local Wool industry but with all attempts unfruitful.[11]
Wool was first imported en masse for the production of western military garments after 1850, when local Raseita and Goro Wools were used.[5][10][11] European Wool farming in Japan is first said to have begun in the Meiji Period (1868-1912) with the advent of the push for Westernisation and was based on the British industrial revolution model in Yorkshire mills.[4][6] Wool outfits were first adopted by the Imperial Japanese family to receive the visiting Duke of Edinburgh in 1869, which promoted Westernisation, prominently British and Prussian dress due to the perception that Wafuku was effiminate and Yofuku (Western dress) as masculine. Chirimen-goro, or French Muslin Wool, was introduced in 1872 and was popular as a cheap alternative to Chirimen silks and was used primarily for Juban ( Underrobe | 襦袢).[11] Inoue Shozo introduced worsted production to Japan in 1878 creating the Senjuu Mill based on German manufacturing models.[10] This included the adoption of western military attire, which at the time, used a lot of stiff and hard woollen fabrics and textiles.[4]
With the 1868 reinstatement of the Emperor the prior sumptuary laws (put in place from 1604-1685), fell away opening the door to bright bold and fantastical designs in the 1870s.[11] Imported wool become a popular alternative for Kimono again beginning in the 1880s, particularly Red shawls for women.[10] Designers like Kimura Otokichi created ways to put popular Yuzen designs (Yuzen-moyo) onto Mosurin, or Hirose Jisuke who designed Yuzen Katagami (Stencils).[11] In 1881, Okajima Chiyozo developed a printing technique to print Japanese designs onto Mosurin which became known as Yuzen Muslins, after our Genroku friend Miyazaki Yuzen (1654-1736) and replaced Silk Crepe Chirimen Muslin.[11] In 1889, Australian wools began to be sourced by the Kanematsu Fusajiro Store to meet this growing demand for Mosurin wools.[11] By 1896 these imported luxury Muslin Wool materials accounted for 40% of the Wool Market and part of daily Japanese KTC.[10] These Yuzen designs and bright dyes also imported from the Occident created a new craze we still feel today.[11]
Seeing as these garments were made from Wool, it replaced the need to layer multiple garments over other Kimono as had previously been done and changed the winter silhouette for a time. Japan Wool Textile Co., Ltd was an early introducer of Wool as part of KTC when it began production in 1896.[1] It was in this time when the importation of Wool was particularly high, with most imports coming from England and Germany in 1898.[5] The suppliers of Wool of at this time came mostly from Western Mills, such as the A W Hainsworth Mill (est.1793), which in 1899 recieved an order for 'Black serge' wool to be delivered to Yokohama. This saw the introduction of new types of overcoats and capes such as the Tombi, Nijuumawashi, and Azumakouto.[5][10]
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By 1900 department stores such as Takashimaya and Mitsukoshi began to stock Mosurin ( Wool Muslin | モスリン) or thin plain weave worsted muslin wools for purchase. At the time these were often red and overtook cotton muslin in popularity among Children and Young Adults for their Kimono. Worsted was bought from Tokyo, and domestic Goro Mosurin from Osaka & Kobe. By the middle of the decade, Mosurin designs would be readily available at Depato and many aimed at the new market of young women consumers as they were more cheaply priced than silk kimono. Mosurin Kimono specifically were pushed to these Young Bright Things through posters and magazines and at events held annually at the Depato themselves. The Gofukuten ( Big Kimono Stores | 呉服店 ) like Mitsukoshi (三越), Takashimaya (高島屋) and Daimaru (大丸) who would set the trends each year. Taisho Mosurin was big business certainly among teenagers and started the emergence of Miss Haikara-san (Ms.High Collar | はいからさん ) which referred to the 'Smartly' dressed young women who adopted western fashions, and displayed a kinship with the Occidental New Woman phenonmenon.[11] This was the sort of It girl Chic of 1910-1920, with short hair, Hakama, textbooks, western boots, Mosurin western motiffed Kimono and a Bow atop the hair, was the Haikara-san charicature of the New Japan. Motifs included Roses, Chrysanthemums and Sunflowers and all in fast bright and bold synthetic dyes.[11]
Wool worsted began to be associated as an English fabric due to its use in the British suit, and Wool was sold in imitation of the English model at stores like Selfridges, Kendals and Harrods besides the railways of Osacca and Tokio for the established gentleman.[6][10] Working class Japanese citizens may have also first come into contact with Wool when their uniforms and issued blankets were made from Wool for the 1904 invasion of the Dalian Peninsula.[6] The process became even more commonplace when the process of printing on Woolen Muslin became mechanized in 1907 by Inahata Katsutaro in Osaka leading to a domestic boom in Wool Mills for these soft lightweight and cheerful fabrics.[10]
With all of the popularity, demand and reliance on foreign imports of woolen goods, factories and due to this whole WWI thing going on, in 1917, the Agricultural and Farming Ministry declared Japan would begin to become self-sufficient in the production of Wool. This was implemented by the building of the Daidoh Wool Kaisha in 1918.[7] This ended by 1920 however as dense wool demand declined in the domestic Japanese market.[3] The Kanto Earthquake (1923) brought all this domestic Wool producting industry to a halt, until it revitalised by the 1930s.
By 1932, Mosurin peaked at it heights of popularity, as Japan turned away from Western inspired motifs like Art Deco, Expressionism and Modernism and with this came the Society of Kyōto Muslin designers and the Ōsaka Designers Union had recently formed.[11] Depato often held contests to design Yuzen inspired Mosurin Katagami designs, and the art of designing onto soft Worsted Mosurin Wool had become a respectable Nihongo art venture. Something that with the expanding Greater Co Prosperity Sphere had turned into fervent passion for militarism and by 1936, the Wool Industry had returned chiefly active in Nagoya, Aichi and Osaka and Ichinomiya, albeit still reliant on imported resources from at first Australia, but China by this time.[10?] Wool Kimono instead began its militarist phase depicting Childrens Kimono with motifs about Japanese warplanes, military prowess and softpower acts like their 'Benevolence' towards Ethiopia as depicted below. By the 1940s, Japan dominated the global wool industry.[6]
After the Pacific War, the Japan-Australia Commerce Agreement (1957) saw the reinstatement of Australian resources being used to make Japanese wool textiles. After the resolution of the Anglo-Japanese Commerce Treaty (1962), by 1964 there was also seen in an uptick of Japanese department stores stocking soft Wool fabrics and some Kimono also being made from them. Up until the 1980s, it was still said that many in the know consumers still bought British sourced wools in Japan to make textiles and goods.[6] A great number of these Taisho Yofuku-Wamono and Depato Mosurin Kimono are also greatly credited in more recent literature as the start of 'Kawaii' culture as well, and certainly play a large role in helping to popularise modern and global KTC due to their bright appearance.[11] Furifu most recently issued a series of Wool Capes in their 2020 Autumn/Winter Season Collection for example, showing the enduring popularity of Wool within JKTC Kitsuke.[8]
Bibliography
[1] https://www.woolmark.com/industry/use-wool/wool-processing/japan-wool-textile-company/
[2] https://sumono.design/japanese-fabric-bolts/wool-kasuri-ikat-woven-full-bolt-japanese-fabric
[3] https://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0007887290
[4] http://www.fragmentsmag.com/en/2014/06/ami-tsumuli-4/
[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_clothing_during_the_Meiji_period
[6] Britain & Japan : biographical portraits Vol X, Hugh Cortazzi, 2016, pp.481-487
[7] https://www.daidoh-limited.com/english/company/history.html
[8] https://furifu.com/en/news/en-items/2199/
[9] https://www.masterclass.com/articles/guide-to-wool-fabric#9-different-types-of-wool
[10] The Dying Case of the Kimono:The Influence of Changing Fashions on the Development of the Japanese Woolen Industry, Keiichirō Nakagawa, Henry Rosovsky, 1963, Vol.37, No.2, pp.59-80, The Business History Review | Available online at https://www.jstor.org/stable/3112093, Accessed 26/02/2022
[11] Woolen Cloths and the Boom of Fancy Kimono: Worsted Muslin and the Development of 'Kawaii' Designs in Japan from Fashion Identity and Power in Modern Asia, Sugimoto Seiko, 2018, Chapter 11, pp.259-284
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