is a traditional slub-woven silk fabric from Japan. It is a tabby weave material woven from yarn produced using silk noil, short-staple silk fibre (as opposed to material produced using longer, filament yarn silk fibres). The short silk fibres are degummed[1] and, traditionally, the yarns are hand-joined to form a continuous length before weaving,[2] a technique also used for cheaper bast fibres. Yarns are joined by twisting the ends to be joined in the same direction, then twisting both ends, bundled together, in the other direction, to make a two-ply yarn at the overlap.[3] It might alternately be loosely handspun, with few twists per unit length.[4] Because of this structure, is rough-surfaced, soft and drapey, softening further with age.
Between 1910 and 1925 (late Taishō to Shōwa era), it became common to spin as well as weave silk noil by machine (see for the technological developments that made this possible).[5] This machine-spun cloth largely displaced as one of the cheapest silk fabrics. Prices dropped drastically, and silk materials and clothing was suddenly within the budget of most Japanese;[6] stores also began to sell off-the-peg, ready-to-wear kimono at about this time.[7]
Originally, was homemade from domestic or wild-gathered silkworm cocoons that had been broken by hatching[8] or were irregularly formed.[4] Unlike the long-fiber silk, such cloth was permitted to peasants.[9] Traditionally a peasant cloth, handmade is very labour-intensive to produce, and has become expensive over time, valued as a luxury folk-craft.
was originally a homespun textile, produced using silk fibre deemed unusable for the production of finer fabrics, and many regional variations existed. Some of these regional variations still exist today and are recognized as, famous products of their place of origin.
| Name | Kanji | Traditional sites | Notes | Example image | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shiga Prefecture | Recycled weft threads respun and rewoven to make . | ||||
| Japanese: 郡上島紬 | Hachiman, Gifu | ||||
| Japanese: 本場大島紬 | Amami, Kagoshima | ||||
| Japanese: 飯田島紬 | Iida, Nagano | ||||
| Japanese: 久米島紬 | Kumejima, Okinawa | Hand woven silk tsumugi dyed with natural dyes. | |||
| Japanese: 村山大島紬 | Musashimurayama, Tokyo | Silk tsumugi woven in the style of Ōshima-tsumugi woven in Tokyo.[10] | |||
| Japanese: 置賜紬 | regions of production:
| is a collective term for six different varieties of made in the Yamagata region, including: | |||
| Japanese: 小千谷島紬 | Ojiya, Niigata | ||||
| Japanese: 信州紬 | Nagano Prefecture | ||||
| Japanese: 塩沢島紬 | Shiozawa, Niigata | ||||
| Tamba-Nuno | 丹波布 | Tanba | Hand pulled cotton threads, dyed with natural dyes and woven into stripes and checks. Hand pulled silk threads are also woven into only the weft. | ||
| Kagami, Kōchi (Kami) | |||||
| Japanese: 上田島紬 | Ueda, Nagano | is always striped and is sometimes referred to as (meaning "stripes"). | |||
| Japanese: 牛首紬 | Hakusan, Ishikawa | ||||
| Japanese: 結城紬 | Yūki, Ibaraki | kimono are often made with thread spun by hand. It can take up to three months to make enough thread for one kimono by an experienced weaver.[11] | |||
| Japanese: 大島紬 | Amami Ōshima | kimono are dyed with mud and dyed from the bark of Tree creating a deep black color. Mud dyed kasuri threads are hand woven together to create patterns.[12] |