Kurume is located in Fukuoka Prefecture on Kyushyu island, the south-eastern part of Japan. Kyushu is the third-largest island of Japan's four main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands.

The Yame and Chikugo regions are suitable to grow cotton and Tadeai (the raw material for indigo) and so cotton weaving flourished. 

Kasuri is the Japanese word for textiles that have been woven with fibers that have been dyed explicitly in order to create geometric patterns and images in the fabric.

Kasuri is a resist tying technique used to dye yarn before weaving.

First produced in mainland Asia and Indonesia, kasuri was carried to mainland Japan through the Ryukyu Kingdom by the 17th century. Its production began in the 12th-13th centuries in the Ryukyu kingdom which corresponds to modern day Okinawa. In the 19th century ikat was produced across Japan, in the islands of Kyushu, Shikoku and Honshu.

Kurume kasuri textiles were originally made by farmers for their own use during the Edo period (1603-1868) and only later they became a business activity. At the end of the Edo period (1603-1868), Den Inoue, a female weaver, invented Kurume Kasuri, and the craft continues to this day. The traditional technique dates back over 200 years and has been handed down from generation to generation. 

It was not until the 18th century that cotton plantations became domesticated in the Kurume area and cotton became available to the common people worn as everyday clothing.Until today, Kurume Kasuri is used in a wide range of everyday products.

In 1957, the Japanese government designated Kurume kasuri an Important Intangible Cultural Property to preserve the craft and support the artisans.

The process to make Kurume Kasuri consists of approximately 30 steps, almost all of these are still done by hand. The weft thread is fed using the same kind of shuttle used in the teori (hand weaving) style to ensure a high-quality finished product.It takes 3 to 4 months to finish a kasuri fabric.Each step is a beautiful choreography to watch and therefore it has been very inspiring to observe the different steps in full detail.

Shimogawa orimono

For the research on Kurume kasuri Anneleen Bertels was very honoured to be able to observe all the 30 steps of the making process at Shimogawa Orimono and his different partners in the Kurume area.

Shimogawa Orimono was established in 1948. Kyozo Shimogawa is the third generation to take over the business. Shimogawa Orimono contributes to the international recognition of Kasuri by expanding its collaborations with textile designers, fashion houses and artists outside Japan, adapting the tradition to clothing designers' creative requirements. 

Patterns Kurume

Kurume Kasuri is typified by simple, gentle patterns. The intricate and beautiful Kurume Kasuri patterns are classified into small, medium and large patterns according to the size and number of patterns with respect to the width of the fabric (35-38cm). 

The patterns are further subdivided into geometric and picture patterns, and for both types, most of the patterns are derived from plants, animals and other objects that are considered auspicious.

Kurume Kasuri Association

The mission of the Kurume Kasuri Association is to safeguard the important traditions that have been cultivated for more than 200 years, to further improve the quality of Kurume Kasuri, and to advance the Kurume Kasuri industry. 

The Union functions as a cooperative and is investing in factories that serve all craftsmen and manufacturers for their production process, to ensure the craft stays alive.

The Association has established inspection criteria and certificates of the products to ensure, maintain and improve the high quality of Kurume Kasuri products as one of Japan's preeminent textiles.

In Japan, intangible skills rich in historical or artistic value are designated by the national government as «important intangible cultural properties» for the sake of preserving the tradition.

Hirokawa Association

Factory specialized in the mechanical process of «Kukuri» (tying off) and untying. 

The parts of the warp and weft that will become the pattern are tied off to prepare for resist dyeing. The drawing of the pattern is introduced into a computer system connected to a machine to tie off the yarn. This part of the process can also be done by hand.

Shibori

Shibori is a traditional Japanese textile craft, which uses tie-dyeing to create patterns on textile mainly processed for kimono. This dyeing technique has sprung all over the world and can be traced back to as early as the 2nd century. 

Shibori reached its peak during the Edo period (1600 - 1868), where it was produced in numerous places in Japan. 

There are infinite ways of binding, stitching, folding, twisting or compressing for Shibori dyeing and each way results in very different patterns. They can also be combined to achieve very complex patterns.

Because the making process of shibori textiles involves many steps, each craftsman specializes in one particular step of that entire process. Once a step is completed by one craftsman, he passes it on to the next.

As crafts are often interconnected, if one dies out, the whole chain of production is endangered. As craftsmanship is handed over from master to apprentice through observation and practice, it is necessary to ensure the transmission of knowledge to the new generation.  

Chiso

Thanks to Chiso we had the honour to observe the shibori dyeing process from very close with their highly skilled craftsmen. Chiso has a long history of producing kyo-yuzen kimonos since 1555. 

As a vestment dealer providing products to the imperial family and temples and as a kimono dealer with high-level techniques of yuzen-dyeing, Chiso has produced an abundance of fabrics and textiles.

In 1989 they established Chiso Gallery with the aim of contributing to the development of culture and art by presenting the collection of paintings, fabrics and textiles owned by Chiso Co. Ltd.

Oke-Shibori

Oke-Shibori is a technique where the cloth is carefully placed in and outside of a wooden Hinoki (cypress) bucket to create large patterns.  Custom-made needles are placed along the dyeing line, together with paper called 'Tsume-gami'.

The top and bottom lids of the bucket are compressed by strong and solid pieces of wood. These are tightened by a linen rope using a wooden flat bar made of oak called 'shime-gi'. The paper and the needles are taken away after the bucket has been closed. 

The tub is sent to the dyeing craftsman to proceed to the dyeing process

The plant strobilanthes cusia, member of the Acanthaceae family, has long been cultivated in the Northern part of the main island of Okinawa. The leaves and branches are first soaked in a barrel of cold water, and they slowly reveal their silvery blue shade.

Basho-shi (basho paper) is another traditional craft specific to Okinawa, using the bark of the ito-basho plant.

While following the whole process of fiber making, they simultaneously learned making paper with the leftover parts of the stalks. After peeling away the stalks for fiber making, the remaining parts are used for making basho-shi paper.

Basho-fu and Basho-shi production begins with growing the ito-basho banana plant, which takes two to three years. Ito-basho is one of the three basho varieties native to Okinawa. The plants are trimmed between May and October to keep the fibers soft and uniform.

Bashofu is a representative Okinawan textile made from the natural fibers of the ito-basho plant (family of the banana tree), which is found mainly in the subtropics. 

The cloth was born out of the wisdom of the islands' ancestral people, who wanted to be able to feel cool even in the hot and humid environment of what is now Okinawa Prefecture.

Yanagi Soetsu, a Japanese art critic, philosopher, and founder of the mingei (folk craft) movement in Japan in the late 1920s and 1930s, states that basho-fu is the most excellent Japanese textile to exist. He praised bashofu for being one of the most sublime natural fabrics because the practice of dyeing, weaving, and agriculture act as one. Basho-fu is so lightweight and thin that it is compared to the wings of a dragonfly. 

When the islands were under the control of the Ryukyu Kingdom (1429-1879), the Satsuma domain (present-day Kagoshima Prefecture) levied a tribute of bashofu on the kingdom's people. While the fabric was presented to China and the Edo shogunate as a luxury textile, it was also widely used to make the daily clothing of the common people.

Thanks to craftsmen Yasuhiro Fukushima,  Ritsuko Fukushima and Fusae Hirayama, we could learn the whole process of banana fiber making, from cutting the trees, to stripping and boiling the stalks, to extracting the fibers, and making paper with the leftover parts of the stalks.

About Japanese carpentry

"Daiku, the Japanese word always translated as carpenter, is composed of the characters 大 (dai, chief) and 工 (ku, craftsman), and its closest English equivalent is "architect", whose Greek roots are archos (chief) and tekton (carpenter). Not only etymologically, but also in terms of responsibility and function, the Japanese carpenter's true Western counterpart is the architect." -The Art of Japanese Joinery, Kiyosi Seike, 1977, p.10

The traditional Japanese framework is based on a post and beam system. Whereas in Europe, the framework functions via the triangulation of the trusses, Japanese assemblies take up the structural forces locally. This is why it is essential to be extremely precise when cutting the joints so that the elements have a maximum friction surface to counteract the stresses of the structure.

Japan is a nation of 'monozukuri' (making things). Carpentry tools contain within them the characteristic aesthetic sensibilities and attention to detail of the Japanese people. They come in different sizes and forms and carpenters choose the ones to use according to the task at hand. They differ in shape and use from tools around the world due to the use of soft wood as opposed to hard wood. In Japanese carpentry, each piece of wood has unique characters just like people have their own personalities. In order to bring out this characteristic to the maximum extent, craftsmen study the idiosyncrasies of each and use the right piece of timber in the right place. 

Construction crafts

• Kumiko 
  The art of 'Kumiko' is a uniquely Japanese style of woodwork. The process involves interconnecting carved wooden pieces together, in intricate patterns, to create a finished panel without the use of glue, nails, or any other external tools.
• Clay walls
  The many different layers composing  clay walls, made entirely of natural materials (wood, bamboo, rope, clay). Great care isn to ensure that there are no gaps or cracks between the pillars and the mud.
• Sliding doors
  From the outside, the fusuma paper (external covering layer), the handles and the edges can be seen but on the inside about 7 steps of underlaying work are hidden. Because paper expands and contracts with changes in temperature and humidity, the type of paper, concentration of glue and method of gluing are varied in each process to prevent the fusuma from warping or tearing.
• Tatami mats
  Tatami structure model. The high level product consists of 5 layers of rice straw stacked vertically and horizontally, compressing the nearly 40cm thick to around 5cm. This increases durability and gives softness. A stile board end to prevent it from losing its shape, and a piece of wood is inserted to adjust the thickness.
• Tataki floor
  During one of our visits in the region, we had the chance to take part in a traditional building workshop to create a rammed earth floor (or Tataki in Japanese). After mixing the earth with lime and magnesium chloride diluted in water, the mixture is spread out on the ground and beaten with specially carved wooden sledgehammers.

Urban Context

Kobe, literally meaning «gateway to the spirits», is the capital and largest city of Hyogo prefecture, located on the island of Honshu near Osaka. The city is located on the Seto Inland Sea. Its port is one of the largest in Japan and forms part of Keihanshin (a metropolitan area made up of the conurbation of Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe, the three most populous cities in the Kansai region). 

In 1945, the city was firebombed with napalm; a large part of it was destroyed since most of the city was made of wood at that time. This episode was used indirectly in the short story and later in the animated film «Tomb of the Fireflies». 50 years later, on January 17 1995, an earthquake destroyed a large part of the city. 

These unfortunate events have repeatedly reduced large parts of the city to ruins, leaving behind a testing ground for urban planning. The city has therefore been reshaped over the decades, each time rising from the rubble with new urbanism and modern architecture. Today, the city consists of a dense downtown area with contemporary architecture where concrete, steel and prefabricated elements dictate the rules. The main urban part of Kobe stretches out in a long strip, compressed between the sea and the wild subtropical nature of the mountains. 

The neighbourhoods on the hills at the foot of the mountains are the last testimony of the past, mostly composed of old houses and endless mazes of steep, narrow lanes, remnants of a time when most people still got around on foot. With the advent of the car and shopping centres, these districts have become increasingly difficult to access, and are losing the interest of citizens who are looking for modernity and accessibility. Those areas have become less popular and many houses are left vacant once the older generation doesn't live there anymore. 

The phenomenon of abandoned houses (Akiyas) is a major problem in Japan, but it normally occurs in rural areas or in small, low-density villages. In the case of Kobe, the fact that this phenomenon occurs in a dense urban area is a unique opportunity and provides fertile ground for artistic and social initiatives. 

Nishimura Gumi

Nishimura Shuji is an architect born in Kobe. When he was a kid, his neighbourhood made of single-family homes was expropriated and razed to the ground to build new, high-density, often single-function housing buildings or offices. A story shared by many inhabitants of Kobe. As a result, the local life of the district has slowly vanished leaving behind only a couple of resisting family houses and small shops.

Faced with this situation, Nishimura Shuji decided to act in the interests of preserving the existing architectural heritage and founded the company «Nishimura Gumi». A few years ago, he came across an alleyway in the hills of Kobe where all the houses were abandoned and in a state of disrepair. He managed to buy the first house and renovated it, gradually adding others until he owned the entire lane.

The renovation process is at the heart of the company and the key stage in the reactivation of these abandoned spaces. In the image below we can see a public audience Nishimura Gumi gave to present the renovation project of a beautiful old traditional house. The landlord and the neighbours are involved in the renovation process and its different phases. The worksite is considered as a place to learn and share knowledge, where motivation is the only prerequisite for participation. Nishimura-san's next project is to set up a renovation school to help the people of Kobe to renovate their own homes.

Bison AIR

Alongside the renovation work, the collective created an artist residency. «To activate spaces, you need people to live in them», Nishimura Shuji told me one evening during a conversation. So he has invited any artist who wanted a studio to join his team and live in the houses being renovated. They are free to work on their artistic practice as long as they help renovate the buildings. In this way people are involved in the place they live in and feel even more attached to it. 

Today the many buildings revitalised by the collective, scattered all over the city, are zones of collective interest where citizens come together to enjoy concerts, artistic performance, exhibitions, tea ceremony, workshops, a mini-market of local produce and other upcoming projects.

Gassho-Zukuri is a traditional Japanese architectural style for farmhouses, characterized by a steep, thatched roof shaped like hands in prayer (gasshō). Here in central Japan, perfectly located in a green valley surrounded by mountains lies the village Shirakawa-Go, a historical site where many of those houses still stand.

The village has been listed since 1995 to the UNESCO as a World Heritage site and today hosts a population of 1700 inhabitants. Some of the Gassho-Zukuri style houses have up to 4 floors with 3 of them as part of the roof. Traditionally, the second, third and fourth floors of those houses were used for silk production while the ground floor area was used to make the raw materials for gunpowder until 1887.

Yui (結), a spirit of closeness, of supporting each other, has been the bedrock of Shirakawa-go for many years. Alongside this, people in the village share the hardships and joys that go hand-in-hand with daily life. The houses have steeply pitched thatched roofs (gassho-style houses) to withstand the heavy snowfalls happening each year in this region. 

This traditional style of living as well as the area's deeply rooted culture and customs have been preserved beautifully up to the present day. 

The severity of the seasons year after year causes the thatched roofs of the houses to fray and therefore needs to be replaced every 20 or 30 years. During this process, the old hay covered in moss is removed and replaced with a new thick layer harvested throughout the seasons and carefully dried out in storages (often the roof itself is used for that purpose). 

Because of the enormous quantities of hay and the amount of work it represents to renovate the thatched roof, this procedure cannot be done alone. Therefore, each year the spirit of Yui echoes in the village while locals come together to lend a hand, no matter the size of the roof, and work together to maintain the Gassho-style houses. 

Kyoto lies in a basin surrounded by mountains to the west, north and east. These mountains channel the rainfall into 3 main rivers. The rainy season and summer (June to September) are particularly trying times. In the words of the Emperor behind Kyoto's original urban development : «a city should be built according to the harshest season». With humidity levels approaching 100% and temperatures climbing to around 33°c, summer is Kyoto's most difficult season. Therefore, the city's urban development was based on a grid pattern to maximise natural street ventilation. This same principle of natural ventilation is what shaped the spatial organization of Machiyas - Kyoto's traditional houses.

As Kyoto has been the imperial capital of Japan for over 1000 years, the city is home to numerous traditional architecture buildings. All together, there are more than 2,000 buddhist temples, shinto shrines, imperial palaces, castles and gardens.