The Making of Nishijin Textiles　(Prologue)

The fabric that surrounds us in our daily lives is something we often take for granted. Nowadays, there are fewer opportunities to create something from fabric using sewing machines or needles and thread, but it is still relatively easy to imagine making something from fabric. However, we rarely think about the fact that fabric itself is also an end product, the result of preparing yarns and weaving them together.This shows just how far the process of making fabric has become from our everyday lives.

Yet, for tens of thousands of years, humans have been creating fabric from fibers. The process involves extracting fibers from nature, preparing them, and then weaving them together. While fabric can now be obtained at very low prices, can you imagine how enormous the task must have been in the past? Some fibers, like silk, naturally have a thread-like shape from the beginning, while others, like hemp and cotton, require the fibers to be extracted and spun into thread. Regardless, the fibers are processed through various methods such as boiling, beating, and twisting to create thread, which is then woven. Of course, the more complex the design, the more difficult the process of creating the design chart becomes. Due to the numerous steps involved, a division of labor was inevitable. As a result, systems like that of Nishijin-ori developed, where each process is handled by specialized artisans, with Orimoto, a Nishijin textile producer, overseeing the entire production.

Therefore, by understanding the manufacturing process of Nishijin-ori, one can gain insight into how fabric is created. Even today, it is rare to see such a concentration of specialized artisans working together in a relatively small area. While the production of Nishijin-ori used to be limited to the Nishijin district, today the process has expanded to other regions within Kyoto, such as Tango. Nevertheless, in our globalized world, where division of labor is the norm, the fact that Nishijin artisans still work in close proximity to one another underscores that each step of the Nishijin-ori production process must work in harmony to create such sophisticated fabrics.