Tate-Yoko-Kasuri is a tightly woven or Ikat derivative textile made on the Okinawa and Ryukyuu Islands. Tate is similar to the texture of Tsumugi silk. Tate-yoko refers to the warp and weft which due to their being combined, form the Double Ikat texture of which Meisen is based upon in central Japan, Tate-yoko however predates the Honshu variant of the design. The 'suri' of Kasuri is said to have originated in the phrase 'zure' meaning 'to shift'.[5] The majority of what is handed down to us from history is from the Kyushu variant of the cotton weave in Fukuoka. Local sites of historical and traditional production sites include on Okinawa the Naha, Haebaru and Shuri sites and in Ryukyuu, around the Kurume area.[9]
Womens' Tate Kimono (c.1900-1939[2018], CC1.0) Honolulu Musuem of Art
Tate refers to the warp, which is the horizontal weave. Yoko refers to the vertical portion of the weave. To change the desired pattern, pressure is applied or taken away on the weavers pedal opening and closing the amount applied to the Yoko. The pressure on the reed then determines the space between the Tate and Yoko which determines the tightness or blurriness of the pattern. In Kurume Kasuri, the white threads are created by overlapping the Yoko and Tate together in this desired way and with repeated washing, highlights the white area of the pattern.[5]
Wikimedia Commons (1878,[2012] CC) Alfred Barlow
Kurume designed Tate-yoko often includes traditional Indigo dyes, often including Checkerboard, arabesque, animal and flower motifs.[2][3] The design is often in a dark indigo dye contrasted with bright white threads in interlocking patterns made by the weaver. Producing a bolt of cloth in the traditional manner can take up to 3 months.[4] The design is crafted in the same weave pattern as Meisen, drawn up beforehand in a premade pattern although often in more subdued colours from plant dyes found in the Fukuoka Chikugo River Basin area.[5]
Historically the designs comes from some dry ice mist filled mysterious part of South East Asia, most likely Indonesia. Ikat originated in South East or Central Asia, sometime before 3000BC. Double Itak originated in Tenganan, East Bali, Indonesia as Geringsing Double Itak. This spread via the vast trade networks of the great Asian empires of modern day India and China along the silk road to as far as Egypt and became a widely available textile. Ikat then arrived in modern day Japan around 1100AD, eventually entering Japan proper in the 1300's when the Ryukyuan Kingdom began trading with Japan. Initially as these fabrics were scarce, they were only worn by the richest people in Okinawa at the time.[9]
Yoko Kasuri (c.1596-1615 [2018] CC1.0) Honolulu Museum of Art
It was said that the local Kurume variant was developed by Inoue Den (1788-1869) who belonged to the local ruling Arima-Kurume Clan in Chikugo, Fukuoka, Kyushu from 1701 when she began adding the white spots 'Kurume Kasuri' is famous for after discovering them as patches in old and worn out textiles.[5] Around 1839, Otsuka Taizen (date unknown) who was based in the Mizuma area developed the Egasuri technique by creating new patterns in the fabric using a standing wooden plank to create the patterns by hand.[7] Large patterned fabrics were used by women, mostly as workwear, and smaller patterns were adopted by scholars and later became menswear. [5] After 1609 when both the Okinawan and Japanese Kingdoms merged, the Ikat technique began to be used in Kyushuu, becoming regarded as a local textile by 1850.[1] Common uses included purposing the textile as bedding by the end of the Edo period.
Tate Kasuri Mulberry Stencil (c.1851-1949) Helen Snyder
When the Satsuma clan came, trade between Okinawa and continental Asia declined when Okinawa came into the Japanese sphere of influence. Japanese motifs such as the Katagami pattern shown above thus began to be produced. Okinawan and Ryukyuuan Ikat weaving as a trade fell sharply as the industry became heavily regulated and unprofitable as trade sanctions went into effect from 1864-1868. When sanctions lifted, Okinawa Kasuri became worn by regular people as workwear. By this time, Kurume Kasuri had begun to become more popular due to better technological advances in design and Okinawa styles became influenced instead by styles from Kurume, Fukuoka, Ryukyuu in particular.[8] By the Meiji era, production moved towards meeting demand on Honshu and became increasingly mechanised. After the Meiji period, production began to drop with the availability of Meisen textiles I presume. From 1899 though, with the inception of machinery, the style began to become popular again when Kunitake Goda Co., Ltd., established in 1899 by the industrial entrepreneur Kunitake Kijiro (active 1899-1904) developed Kurume Kasuri into a modern industry.[6] He did this by mechanising the Egasuri technique as not a plank but tube which feeds into a power loom.[7][10] In 1907, indigo dyes began to be replaced by German chemical dyes which produced brighter and other vivid colours.[5] In 1912 major production shifted from Naha to a new Haebaru cottage industry sprang up in the local area of Okinawa.[9]
Fabric made using E-gasuri (20th century[2013], CC3.0) Chris Hazzard
With the WWII, as in general textile production, the industry saw a decline in demand and therefore was reduced in size from 1945 on.[9] From 1975 though interest in Ryukyuu Ikat was once again sparked and a local cooperative society was formed to bolster the industry as well as Ryukyu Hanaori which uses local indigo plants rather than Kurume indigo. In 1980, Kasuri Ikat hall was built to showcase traditional Ryukyu Ikat.[9] Today modern products made in 'Kurume Kasuri' are made by an Italian-Japanese company Kimonissimo which launched in March 2021.[4]Bibliography
[1] See Fabric series #5
[2] https://ktaylor-lotus.com/inventory/j15-5244
[3] https://www.mercari.com/jp/items/m94362956778/?_s=U2FsdGVkX18F097cGLcsvohYmGrNvnTAfsWhc4-6oKs_xkzqJ4i7MAlfniAuHdt4L4PY6p2-tA2F7ukqWB3ikzHWWdkgBtW3U-jULkO6pCWdh9XKAxtxInFbUfoTdRqp
[4] https://metropolisjapan.com/based-in-japan-kurume-kasuri/
[5] https://en.yame.travel/crafts/kurume-kasuri/
[6] https://www.google.com/maps/contrib/109015429734549306064/place/ChIJe1KuE1ekQTUROpTXrNam148/@33.3159088,130.5160818,17z/data=!3m1!4b1
[7] https://oriyasan.com/en/koe/20200901/
[8] http://ryukyukasuri.com/?page_id=257
[9] https://www.rhs-japan.org/en/tourism/ryukyukasurikaikan/
[10] Reconsidering the Japanese Industrial Revolution: Local Entrepreneurs in the Cotton Textile Industry during the Meiji Era, Naofumi Nakamura, January 2014, pp.23-44, Social Science Japan Journal 18
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