By Rafe Calder
The name is not a technique. It is an address.
The plain definition
Wikipedia says Nishijin-ori is a traditional silk textile produced in the Nishijin district of Kamigyo-ku, Kyoto, and that the name refers to the place of origin rather than a single technique or pattern. It lists weaves that fall under it: tsumugi, kasuri, velvet, damask, brocade and others. A separate Wikipedia page on the district calls Nishijin a district spanning Kamigyo and Kita wards with no official administrative status, and the birthplace of a high-quality silk brocade woven with coloured silk yarn and gilt or silver paper strips.
Twelve kinds, and a rule about who may use the name
The craft-promotion site Kogei Japan says the Japanese government designated Nishijin Textiles a Traditional Craft in 1976. It says only brocades made by fabric makers, called oriya, in Nishijin can be called Nishijin Textiles under official rules, that regulations recognise twelve kinds, and that “Nishijin” and “Nishijin-ori” are registered trademarks. Our reading: so the label is a rule about where and by whom, as well as how.
How it is made, in nine steps
Kogei Japan sets out nine steps. Designers plan the finished fabric; the design map is drawn on grid paper; holes are punched in pattern paper using a piano machine, with computer graphics now widely used as well. Threads of different thickness are twisted together. Animal protein is removed to keep threads white, and they are dyed in a set colour order. Threads are wound onto reels, now mostly by machine. Thousands of warp threads are set on the loom, and weft is wound onto bamboo tubes in the shuttle. The warp passes through the heddle cords of the Jacquard loom. Finally the fabric is woven on handlooms, Jacquard looms, power looms or manual machines. Handlooms, the page says, remain necessary for delicate gold brocade.
Dyed first, then woven
One detail in Kogei Japan reads as a buyer’s tip. Threads are dyed before weaving, which it says makes the fabric tougher and more wrinkle resistant than fabric woven first and dyed afterwards. It names common varieties: tsumugi, made with thin silk threads; honshibo-ori, a textured crepe weave; and futsu, a double-sided fabric with different colours and patterns on each side.
Dates in order
The two Wikipedia pages and Kogei Japan do not agree on the starting line.
- Wikipedia (Nishijin-ori): production began over 1,200 years ago in Heian-kyo, and grew after the city became capital in 794.
- Wikipedia (Nishijin): textile production in Kyoto dates to the 5th century.
- Kogei Japan: silk weaving became an official occupation in the Heian period (784 to 1185), and the page also dates initial production to the Kofun period or to the 5th or 6th century. It says the name Nishijin-ori dates to the 15th century.
- Meiji period (1868 to 1912): the Jacquard loom is introduced from Europe, according to Kogei Japan. Wikipedia places the revival in 1872, after weavers studied European weaving methods, and says the trade was well developed with the new machinery by 1898.
- 1976: designation as a Traditional Craft, according to Kogei Japan.
Numbers from 2008
Wikipedia’s district page gives figures for 2008: 465 vendors, 4,783 looms, of which 3,600 were power looms and 1,200 hand looms, and around 30,000 people working in the industry directly or indirectly. The two loom counts, 3,600 and 1,200, look rounded: they sum to 4,800, a little above the 4,783 total, and we show them as stated. The same page notes that an Imamiya festival, held at Imamiya Shrine, is known as the Nishijin festival, and that a c. 1717 magistrate’s guidebook defined the district by Horikawa, Shichihon-matsu, Kuramaguchi and Ichijo streets.
Where the cloth goes: the obi
Wikipedia’s page on the obi says an obi is a sash worn with traditional Japanese clothing, and that it began as a thin sash in the Heian period. It names Nishijin-ori as a prized, intricately woven fabric that can have a three-dimensional effect, and Hakata-ori from Fukuoka as another well-known obi fabric. Silk is considered essential for formal wear, with heavy brocade for formal occasions and lightweight silk for informal ones.
The same page gives sizes for women’s obi: the fukuro obi, the most formal worn today, is about 30 centimetres wide and 360 to 450 centimetres long; the nagoya obi, the most common today, is about 30 centimetres wide and 315 to 345 centimetres long and was developed in the late 1920s; the half-width hanhaba obi is 15 centimetres wide and 300 to 400 long and is often worn with yukata.
It also says early obi were about 8 centimetres wide, and that women’s obi reached about 25 centimetres by the 1730s and about 30 centimetres around 1800, following longer kosode sleeves. Men’s obi peaked at about 16 centimetres in the 1730s.
Questions a buyer would ask
Does Nishijin-ori mean one weave? No; Wikipedia says the name refers to a place of origin. Does the name cover cloth made anywhere? Kogei Japan says only brocades by fabric makers in Nishijin may use it. Is it all woven by hand? The same page says handlooms remain necessary for delicate gold brocade, while other looms are used elsewhere.
What kind of sources these are
Three Wikipedia pages (Nishijin-ori, Nishijin, Obi) and Kogei Japan, a craft-promotion site. No guild or museum page could be read. Both Wikipedia and Kogei Japan also describe how weaving first arrived and a period of disruption in the district’s history; we left both out.
What we left out
Prices of top-end obi, the names of workshops and weavers, and the origin accounts of how silk weaving first reached Kyoto, which the sources state but do not agree on.
Quick answers
What does Nishijin-ori mean? Wikipedia says it is silk textile from the Nishijin district of Kyoto, and that the name refers to the place of origin, not one technique.
When was Nishijin Textiles designated a Traditional Craft? In 1976, according to the craft-promotion site Kogei Japan, which also says twelve kinds are recognised.
How wide is a women’s obi? According to Wikipedia, most women’s obi are about 30 centimetres wide, with the half-width hanhaba obi at 15 centimetres.
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