紗 | Sha | Plainweave Hitoe Gauze | Fabric #18

Sha (紗) is the older hand woven predecessor to Ro fabric. Sha fabrics often made up the summer kimono, kosode and yukata of the Heian period down to today, and which are normally adopted globally most popularly in the Haori which employ their innovative fabric potentials for summerwear. Woven using the staple Karamiori weave, the weave allows the wearer to reveal the underneath fabric with subtle hinting and shading from the transparency of the weave and width of the eyes that Sha has over Ro. Twists in the warp threads allow larger eyes than Ro eyes, creating emerging patterns in Sha designs.[1]

Heian Sha Example (1922, PD) Tsutomu Ema

Momiji Monsha (2023, CC4.0) TykeLass

Sha began to be made in the Heian period by hand, for the elites of Japanese society to wear as formalwear in the sweltering heatwaves of July and August which Sei Shonagan believed to be unbecoming of feminine propriety.[1] Unfortunately, it was difficult to dye the natural fibers used to make handmade Sha, so Ro was created in the Edo period to do so.[1] By the Meiji period, this was made redundant as Sha fibers could be made using machines and the nature of these light designs made it easy to make fashionable pictures of ladies in revealing hitoe. In the modern day, Sha is made by machine, creating Monsha ( 紋紗 | Pattern Sha) which is made using a mix of Leno and Plain weaves, but most often regular Sha is worn daily by monks.[1]

Bibliography

[1] https://rosha.jp/faq/02_about_ro-sha/ro_sha_chigai/

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絽 | Ro | Ro silk | Fabric #17

Ro ( 絽 ) silk fabric is a thin, see through fabric used to make Hitoe ( 一重 | unlined kimono ). It is most often worn in hot weather, which in Japan is between the June to September months. Woven using Karamiori ( | Mojiri weave ), this is what makes the fabric easy to ventilate and gives it its line like gap effects known as (horizontal) eyes. Ro is made by weaving warp threads with an odd number of weft threads to create these see through eyes. Ro can be used in any part of Wafuku production, even undergarments. There exist 3, 5, 13 eye gaps known as Ohonro, Ranro which follows a gap pattern of 3-5-7, and Tatero where the gaps are made by reversing the gap process to an odd number of warp threads, creating vertical eyes.[1]  

Machine Ro Weave with Embroidery (2019, CC4.0) Ineffablebookkeeper

Ro began to made in the Edo period (circa 1600) and existed to be worn as formal summer wear for the rich and monks. Sha fabrics (a more transparent Gauze like weave) was the basis for the Ro weave, with Ro created to allow finer types of dyes and patterns to be made onto the textiles surface often using stencils, painting and sometimes embroidery.[1][2] This allowed patterns like the Mon to be added to Kimono without the blurring effect of Sha fabrics. During the industrial age, mass produced Ro fabrics began to made using the Leno weave and may have made the majority of exported and everyday Ro fabrics during the 19th century and early 20th century.[1] It seems hitoe were also popular with quite a number of the liberally minded living in Edwardian Japan.[3] In the modern day, Tomesode, Houmongi, Tsukesage, Komon, Nagajuban, and detachable Eri are made using Ro, but this is dwindling with the death of new buyers.[1]

Bibliography

[1]  https://rosha.jp/faq/02_about_ro-sha/ro_sha_chigai/ 

[2] https://bellatory.com/fashion-industry/kimono-fabrics

[3] My dodgy 1920s own research into art movements and writers circles.

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