Nishijin textiles

Nishijin is a place name used for a weaving area, not an administrative district. In everyday geographic terms it centers on Kamigyo and Kita wards and reaches roughly south to Marutamachi-dori, north to Kamigamo, east to Karasuma-dori, and west to Nishioji-dori. Businesses connected with Nishijin-ori are concentrated in this northwest part of Kyoto city, so the name carries streets, workshops, dyed yarn, warping work, and looms in the same local frame.

Nishijin-ori starts with pre-dyed figured textiles made in Kyoto's Nishijin area. The yarn is colored before weaving, and the pattern appears as the warp and weft are controlled on the loom. Its production character is many varieties in small lots, and Kyoto Prefecture describes the textile as a fine silk fabric nurtured in Kyoto. Within the range are twelve varieties, including tsume-kaki hon-tsuzure-ori, tate-nishiki, yoko-nishiki, donsu, shuchin, shoha, futsu, mojiri-ori, hon-shibo-ori, velvet, kasuri-ori, and tsumugi.

The name also carries a concrete moment in Kyoto history: the Onin War, fought from 1467 to 1477. During the conflict, western army leader Yamana Sozen placed his headquarters to the west, and many weaving workers moved away to places such as Sakai in Izumi. After the fighting ended, workers returned to Kyoto and restarted weaving near Hakumura and the Omiya-Imadegawa area; the former western army headquarters became the place-name root of Nishijin-ori.

The early work begins with a design drawing, then an enlarged weave-design chart that marks the structure on grid paper. Pattern punching follows the chart by opening holes in strips of pattern paper about 33 centimeters by 4.5 centimeters, giving instructions for lifting warp threads; computer graphics and computer Jacquard systems can carry the same patterning work. The yarn work then moves through twisting, dyeing to the weaver's specified color, winding skeins onto frames, preparing warp threads, and kasuri work. Some Nishijin-ori fabrics use about 3,000 warp threads, while larger ones use as many as 8,000.

Before weaving, heddles raise the warp threads so the weft can pass through. The heddles act according to Jacquard instructions, with pattern commands coming from punched paper or digital media. Nishijin-ori uses tsuzure looms, hand looms, and power looms, and some fabrics continue into finishing work such as cutting velvet wires or using steam to set the cloth's surface.

In the Meiji period, Kyoto Prefecture sent Sakura Tsuneshichi and two others to Europe, and Nishijin adopted Western techniques such as the Jacquard from France. That technical change sits beside a wide range of uses: Noh costumes, uchikake, kichō curtains, obi, kimono, and kinran remain within the textile's field, while neckties, interiors, stage curtains, shawls, and bags show how the figured cloth moved into other forms.