- Japanese: 西陣 (Nishijin)
Nishijin is a neighborhood of Kyoto, and perhaps the most famous center of textile production in Japan.
The neighborhood's name, literally meaning "western [military] encampment," derives from it being the area where Yamana Sôzen's so-called "Western Army" was based during the Ônin War (1467-77).
It is estimated that at its height in the Edo period, Nishijin's textile industry may have employed as many as 100,000 people, including weavers, spinners, dyers, and others. There were at this time roughly 7,000 takabata "high looms," which were used to produce the highest quality textiles, and which required two operators at a time; most textiles were produced using the single-operator hirahata, or "flat looms." The businessmen who dominated textile production in Nishijin at this time, over the course of the Edo period, consolidated their control over the industry in a vertical manner, establishing or taking over operations of silkworm cultivation (sericulture), and silk spinning and dyeing, as well as the weaving and sewing done within Nishijin itself, and the retail and wholesale operations. Many of the families which were most prominent in Nishijin in the Edo period remain the most prominent and powerful families today.
Though at the start of the Bakumatsu period (1850s) Japan lagged behind China and several European countries in silk production, it rapidly caught up and surpassed most other countries. For the entire length of the Meiji period (1868-1912), roughly half of all of Japan's exports were textiles or textile-related products, and by 1938, Japan controlled roughly four-fifths of world silk production.[1]
Following the Meiji Restoration in 1868, Nishijin began importing European "modern" equipment, adapting it to their needs, and adapting their techniques and products, to some extent, to the equipment and to shifts in demands. Nishijin's production remained focused primarily, if not exclusively, on traditional-style garments, i.e. kimono and the like, but the district began to make use of new dyes, new materials, and new techniques in its production of such traditional products. Many in the district also began to experiment with different materials and styles that might appeal more to foreign buyers.[1]
References
- Moriya, Katsuhisa. "Urban Networks and Information Networks." in Chie Nakane and Shinzaburô Ôishi (eds.) Tokugawa Japan: The Social and Economic Antecedents of Modern Japan. University of Tokyo Press, 1990. p98.
- Nishijin Textile Center Official Website (English).
