ICHIROYA -Tour J Artisan-

Tour No.08 "Kiyohara Orimono in Shiga"

Introduction of tour

Date : 2005.12.8

Location : Moriyama, Shiga
I sent some e-mails to the artisans to ask them offer their items at our site. President of Kiyohara Weaving Co., Ltd. called back to us, and said he got interested in selling items to the abroad.
Kiyohara Weaving is one of the famous Tsuzure-Weave company in Japan. Their main factory is in Moriyama, Shiga prefecture. Shiga prefecture has a large lake (Biwa Lake) in the center, and Moriyama city is situated on the east coast of Biwa lake. Shiga prefecture locates just besides Kyoto, and it takes about an hour from Osaka by JR line.
Biwa Lake is one of the summer resort of Kansai area.We sometimes go to Biwa Lake for camping, fishing and swimming.
I visited his company on 8th December in 2005 by train. It was a short one-day trip, but it was the beginning of an exciting long trip - long journey to make a new dream and fulfill it together.

Snapshot of tour


President of Kiyohara Weaving Corp - Mr. Junji Kihoyara' warm smile! Kanji character reads 'Kiyohara Weaving Corp'	"Inherits The Traditional Tsume Tsuzure Weave technique" Mr. Junji Kiyohara is the president of Kiyohara Orimono (Weaving) Corp. His family began business in Meiji 6(1874) at Omuro in Kyoto, and has more than 130 years' brilliant history. They had made their items for Emperor and Crown Prince, and also for lots of public halls. Their main products are fukusa, obi and other items made of tsuzure woven silk. They also make 'doncho', large drop curtain used on stage of big hall. They weave their 'doncho' also with same technique as tsuzure. His company have made lots of valuable doncho and sold them to many public halls all over Japan. Now he has three factories, and at the peak of the boom, he says he hired more than 100 artisans, and orders never ended. At that time his company often asked customers to wait more than three months. These days Japanese kimono market is shrinking, and public project market also declines. Now he trains and hires about 30 artisans, and mainly makes fukusa, obi and accessories. He wants to inherit Japanese tsuzure technique to the next generation. So he is trying to make nontraditional items and sell to other markets.

Snow covered mountain over the Biwa Lake can be seen from their factory.	Kiyohara's family began their business in Kyoto more than 100 years ago, and later they moved to Moriyama city. Moriyama city is only 30 minutes from Kyoto, but calm and beautiful rural district. From the gate of Kiyohara Weaving, snow covered mountains of west cost of Biwa Lake could be seen. They had Head Quarters, the first doncho factory and the second doncho factory in Moriyama. They also has a factory in Nagasaki (Kyushu) and another in Ibuki-cho ( Shiga) .

One of the best tsume-tsuzure fukusa, which was woven recently. It is more gorgeous than photos!	This is the most valuable fukusa, they have now. Its design is exceptionally fine and artistic. This piece was woven by one of the most skilled tsume-tsuzure weaver, Emiko san ( You can see her photo and profile in the next page.) To weave this fukusa, even she had to weave approx three months. If you see how she weaves this fukusa, you must understand the retail price becomes equal to high-end car.

'Hatsurikou' ( holes between weft threads) is the distinctive feature of tsume-tsuzure. You can see them in this photo.	To let people in the world know ( and use) more tsume tsuzure weaving products, we discussed what kinds of products could be acceptable for Western society. Western people never use fukusa and obi in their daily lives. But it is truth that tsume tsuzure is the one of the most valuable and beautiful textile in the world. There must be the good usage also in other cultures.

Have you ever seen a bag like this piece? One of the our final products - Please check more items in other pages!	Finally we determined to suggest formal bags with exotic kamon design. Kamon is family crest of Japan, and has huge variety design. Black silk woven with tsume tsuzure technique is very soft and chic texture, which has great charm everyone want to touch. Gold tsume tsuzure woven textile is exceptionally gorgeous. And if we put kamon design boldly on it, bags must have fantastic taste - magnificent, sophisticate, exotic and modern at a time.