にぶたにあっつし | Nibutani-attushi | Place where Wood Bark grows quickly Cloth | Fabrics #24

Nibutani-attushi is a fabric made from tree bark. Nibutani originates from the Ainu word (Niputai) translating to 'a land where the trees grow thickly' apparently.[1] The bark fiber is grown and harvested next to Biratori, Hokkaido by Ainu communities.[1] The bark is harvested and fiber contents scrapped from the interior layers of wild Manchurian elms in length strips. These strips then are left to dry and boiled with wood ash. The contents are removed in a sinewy like density, into thin strips of fiber content from the boiled bark and left to dry for 2 weeks.[1] These fiber contents are then left into very thin sheets and turned into 2mm threads. These tiny fiber contents are then woven into thread using a Attushi Karape which is a type of weaving loom perhaps, which uses a lot the dynamics of gravity to put weight on the warp and weft threads when weaving.[1] This is different from Honshu looms, as 2 people are required to operate the weaving process, and is a descendant of the Koshibata (back strap loom).[1] This craft has been produced as a traditional heritage craft since the early 20th century, around the first quarter of the 1900s.[1] The fabric is used for Kimono, Hanten (short coats), aprons, and accessories.[1]

Ainu craftsman in Nibutani at work (2014, CC2.0) Robert Kroos

Nibutani-attushi was originally made as a durable fabric for family members of the Ainu, this is most likely centuries before the 18th century when the first recognition of the craft was known to local literary languages. Later on down the line, Japanese merchants adopted the fabric and it became known throughout Honshu by the 18th century.[1]  Formal written records date this to around 1792.[1] By this time, the Ainu seem to have been due to a lack of access to the sea perhaps, going to the land to produce goods to sell to make their living.[1] This state of affairs would continue into the 20th century, when the craft was recognised by the Heritage Craft associations of Honshu, and then began to boom as an artisan production by the middle of the century. Nibutani crafting became a viable business in the 1950s and the craft went into mass production. These fabrics were some of the first tangible properties in Hokkaido to be designated as such in 2013.[1]

Bibliography

[1] https://kogeijapan.com/locale/en_US/nibutaniattoushi/

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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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縮緬 | Chirimen | Crispe | Fabrics #8

Chirimen is a plain woven silk which has a bumpy finish or Shibo, to the touch, with a lotta density. Most Chirimen are worn by older women, and I personally do not like the feel of them, they give me the bejeebies. Specialities like Tango Chirimen is known as a preferential fabric for Yuzen prints for Kimono.[1] Whilst mostly often silk, Chirimen can also be made from Wool or Polyester. It is often used for Kimono, Furoshiki, Kanzashi and as an everyday use sewing fabric.[3] Chirimen is one of the most common fabrics used to make Kimono still.[4]

Modern Mon Chirimen (2015, CC4.0) Naooan

Chirimen is made by using highly twisted undeveloped yarn threads. This becomes a plain weave after being processed through a Hatcho Machine, sometimes Jacquard Looms. Hatcho Machines keep the weft threads wet whilst they spin over the machine to prevent breakage, being spun 3-4000 times a metre of threads. Looser Warps threads are then introduced. After weaving, the textile is checked for sericin (leftover silk worm proteins gunk) and during the removal of sericin, the textile shrinks by around a third. This tightening of alternating threads creates the Shibo effect, like in Shijira-Ori.[2] Factors which affect the final bumpy effect include the amount of weft twisting, fibre denier and the distribution of these across the design frame. For example, weft threads can also be left 'floating', or exposed and knotted, tied off and to create pompom like patterns in the final weave.[1] Tango chirimen uses left hand warp twists (Z-twist) and right hand weft twists (S-twist). Hana or Nagahama chirimen is made by alternating Z-twist and S-twist weft threads.[4][5]

 Types of Chirimen include:  

Kawari Chirimen: Very fine crimping created using one twisted weft thread followed by an un-twisted thread

Hitokoshi Chirimen: Otherwise known as the Nagahama twist, one of the most common Chirimen with a fine alternating twist patterns in the weft [5]

Futakoshi/Kodai Chirimen: Fine crimping patterns formed from two "Z - twist" weft yarns alternating with 2 "S-twist" weft yarns  

Mon Chirimen: Woven to create a pattern which stands out over all the fabric and any printed design [4]  

Historically, Chirimen came to Japan from China at the end of the 1500s when it was brought in by Chinese merchants.[4] Deposited in the Nishijin area of Kyoto, an area known for its textile weaving, it became woven by local weavers. Most of these woven takemono were white, as it was easier for dying rather than being woven in. By 1720, it had spread to Tango Province, today the seaside border of Kyoto, via a Nishijin apprentice, Kinuya Saheiji. By 1754, it had spread to Nagahama, where production reached its height between 1854-1860.[5] The Meji restoration which brought in mechanised production, brought the decline of Chirimen. During the 19th century, Jacquard Looms were introduced into the process to make complex weaves easier to accomplish, in the modern day, punch cards are replaced by computer programming. Between 1912-1926, Chirimen as with many other 'Wafuku' saw a revival in popularity.[5] Modern designers include Reiko Sudo (1953-present).[1] 

Fabrics #9 will be on Nishijin-Ori.

NHK also has a segment on Chirimen : https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/tv/journeys/20210105/2007430/

Bibliography

[1] https://www.japanhouselondon.uk/discover/stories/tango-chirimen/

[2] See Fabrics #7

[3] https://onokimono.com/2017/08/09/what-is-chirimen-crepe-textile/

[4] https://www.rochestertextile.com/post/398841446836/japanese-crepe-fabrics-chirimen-kinsha

[5] http://www.kimono.or.jp/dictionary/eng/hamachirimen.html

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阿波 しじら織 | Awa Shijira-ori | Crinkled Cotton Weave | Fabrics #7

Awa Shijira-Ori is a woven fabric which resembles a crinkly cotton finish. This uneven finish is known as Shibo ( Down-up | 凹凸 ). Shijira is originally made in Tokushima, and is usually worn as a summer textile for workwear or as yukata, being able to combat the humid Japanese summers easily as it is commonly woven using cotton threads with an open weave in indigo dyes.[1][3]

Shijira weave is made by sorting, measuring and scouring your yarns. The yarns are then dyed and rinsed as the colour dictates, measured and dried. These yarns are twisted into threads, as tight uneven weft threads and immersing the yarn underwater in a vat. These are removed being left out to air-dry with 'gloiopeltis glue' added which stops the threads from 'fluffing'. The warp threads are re-submerged in hot water, (75 degrees) to remove the glue and the process repeated and are at times dyed in another colour simultaneously.  The two warp and weft threads are combined into the loom and woven together, the warp threads being more shrunken due to their greater exposure and treatment, creating the 'crepe' or crinkle finish in their bid for freedom from the tighter weft threads. The fabric is measured and resized with the rolling the cloth into a Tan ( 反 | Kimono fabric roll ) fabric bolt of around 1100cm length, 40cm wide. This creates a varied pattern of alternating bumpy threads and one separately dyed warp threads as the threads shrink and dry, creating a vivid Shijira weave stripe pattern with its definitive Shibo quality.[1][3][4]

Tokushima Prefecture (2007, Public Domain) Bobo12345

During the Edo period, the lord of Awa decreed that Heimin (commoners | 平民) were not to wear silk, part of the Sumptuary legislation in reaction to the wealth of the merchant classes (1604-1685) and regulation of export and imports of foreign trade in silk and cotton (1615-1685) in the wider Edo culture and tightening of the textile trades.[2] Instead therefore, the Heimin created and found new beauty in textiles such as Shijira weave or Tatae-Ori as it is known in Tokushima, which was worn by farmers, becuase of its light and durable nature and fun patterns. During the Meiji period, the technique was recovered in Awa's Atake village by Kaifu Hana c.1860-1869, when a striped Kimono had been left out in the rain, and dried in the sun. Hana noted that sections of the cloth had shrunk, producing the Shibo effect.[5] Inspired, she recreated the effect after much trial and error by reweaving warp threads in a cotton weave, creating the desired puckering or Shibo.[1] By the of the 1890s, production of the cloth totalled 2 million bolts a year, today only in its thousands by a handful of family owned businesses.[3] By the 1910s, the  traditional association with indigo dying was superseded by brighter chemical dyes, but was revived after 1945 and designated in 1978 under Awashouai-Shijirao as a traditional craft.[5] The textile is now protected and still made locally in Tokushima Prefecture in industrial quantity.

Next Fabric post will be on Chirimen.

Bibliography

[1] http://www.jtco.or.jp/en/japanese-crafts/?act=detail&id=252&p=36&c=33

[2] See the Bijin Series Timeline and Bijin post #3

[3] https://theardentthread.com/2010/02/03/awa-shijira-ori/

[4] https://voyapon.com/kimono-japanese-traditional-clothing/

[5] Swatch Favourite Fabric No 41 Awa Shijira-ori, Sarah Jane Downing, March 2018, Issue 81, p.98, Selvedge Magazine, London | https://issuu.com/selvedgemagazine/docs/81_japan_blue

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