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[[File:Bashofu.jpg|right|thumb|320px|An example of ''baasaa'' cloth, on display at the British Museum]]
*''Japanese/Okinawan'': 芭蕉布 ''(bashoufu / baasaa nunu)''

''Bashôfu'', or ''baasaa'' in [[Okinawan language|Okinawan]], is cloth made from the fibers of a particular type of banana plant. Garments made in this fashion, known in Okinawan as ''baasaa jin'' and in [[Amami langage]] as ''bashagin'', were among the more common types worn traditionally by both elites and lower classes in many parts of the [[Ryukyu Islands|Ryukyu archipelago]].<ref name=bashagin>Gallery labels, "Bashagin," Amami Nature and Culture Centre, Amami Ôshima.[https://www.flickr.com/photos/toranosuke/49490487973/sizes/h/]</ref> The ''ito bashô'', or "thread banana" plant, as it is called, is different from the type which produces edible fruit, and while the plant is not originally indigenous to the Ryukyus, and even today grows only in areas of human habitation, ''bashôfu'' cloth is nevertheless unique to Ryukyuan culture; it is not produced or used in other cultures, e.g. in Southeast Asia. Today, the chief center of ''baasaa'' cloth production in [[Okinawa prefecture|Okinawa]] is the neighborhood of Kijoka in the northern Okinawa ([[Yanbaru]]) village of [[Ogimi|Ôgimi]].

The cloth is made from fibers taken from the center of the main stalk of the plant; fibers closer to the core of the stalk are softer and finer, and are used for the finest ''baasaa'' cloth, while the rougher outer fibers are used for weaving mats and the like. It is often said that because of the nature of the material, banana fibers cannot be easily woven or sewn by machine, and that all ''bashôfu'' production is therefore still done today by hand.<ref name=francesco>Francesco Montuori, "Okinawa Bashofu and Repackaging After Japanese Annexation," talk given at Okinawan Art in its Regional Context: Historical Overview and Contemporary Practice symposium, University of East Anglia, Norwich, 10 Oct 2019.</ref> However, in the Amami Islands, at least, looms were traditionally used for weaving the threads.<ref name=bashagin/> The process of spinning the plant fibers into thread is known in the [[Amami Islands]] as ''wowomi''; first the fibers are boiled, and then separated using bamboo scissors called ''iebi''. Unusable elements are removed, and what remains is bleached by being left under running water overnight. The fibers are then dried, separated one by one, and spun into thread. Traditionally, this was done by many women in their homes.<ref>Gallery labels, ''Wowomi'', Amami Nature and Culture Center.[https://www.flickr.com/photos/toranosuke/49491198022/sizes/h/]</ref>

A somewhat coarse fabric, ''bashôfu'' is nevertheless used in the Ryukyus for a wide variety of purposes, from robes to underwear, and was worn by people of all social classes, including even royalty.

The earliest extant mention of ''bashôfu'' is in a [[1546]] account written by Koreans shipwrecked in the Ryukyus, who also describe how it is made - a process that has remained largely unchanged, at least in certain parts of the Ryukyus, among certain lineages of weavers, down to the present day. The banana fabric is not mentioned as a [[tribute]] good, however, until over forty years later, in [[1587]]. In the early modern period, the [[Ryukyu Kingdom]] regularly presented ''bashôfu'' as tribute or gifts of luxurious "local products" to the lords of [[Satsuma han|Kagoshima domain]] and to the [[Tokugawa shogunate|Tokugawa shoguns]]; the people of the Amami Islands also often presented Kagoshima domain with ''bashôfu'' cloth, sometimes being permitted to do so in place of gifts or payments of [[sugar]].<ref name=bashagin/>

The material is central enough to Okinawan culture that a song called "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kImjKvDIko Bashôfu]" is among the most well-known and popular folk songs today. [[Taira Toshiko]], a weaver who collaborated with [[Yanagi Soetsu|Yanagi Sôetsu]] in the 1930s and was named a [[Living National Treasure]] in 2000, is the most prominent producer of ''bashôfu'' today, at her workshop in Kijoka. Ishigaki Akiko is another notable ''bashôfu'' weaver active today, though she has not received the same national and international attention as Taira.<ref name=francesco/>

Though ''bashôfu'' was traditionally something available to all classes of people, since it cannot be woven or sewn by machine, it is an exceptionally expensive material today. A roll of ''bashôfu'' material can be worth tens of thousands of dollars.<ref>Nitta Setsuko, "Oppression of and Admiration for Okinawan Textiles: Commercial Items and Art Objects," Okinawan Art in its Regional Context symposium, University of East Anglia, Norwich, 10 Oct 2019.</ref>

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==References==
*Stinchecum, Amanda Mayer. "Textiles of Okinawa." in ''Beyond the Tanabata Bridge: Traditional Japanese Textiles.'' Seattle Art Museum, 1993. pp78-79.
*Gallery labels, "Churashima Textiles" exhibition, Shôtô Museum of Art, Sept 2019.
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[[Category:Ryukyu]]
[[Category:Art and Architecture]]