Japan · Textile / Weaving / Supplementary Float-Weave
知花花織 (Chibana Hanaori)
Chibana hanaori (知花花織) is the float-weave of the former Misato Village, today's Chibana, Noborikawa and Ikehara districts of Okinawa City. It is distinguished by warp floats: the pattern threads run in the warp direction. It has two techniques. In sōkō-bana, a double-woven structure, the weaver lifts pattern-heddle frames by hand, hooking them in sequence, which leaves long loose pattern floats on the reverse. In tī-bana (also called nuitori, 'embroidery weaving'), pattern warps are picked up by hand, so the floats can run in warp or weft and the back stays clean. Grounds are typically Ryukyu-indigo navy with red and white floats, combined with kasuri and checks. By the late 19th century the technique was fixed, and cloth was woven for jackets (uchaki), hand-cloths (tīsāji), vests (dujin) and festival wear. It is still worn at the village's Usudēku, a women's harvest-prayer drum dance on the 15th of the eighth lunar month, and associated with the Umaharashī horse race the day before. Devastated in the war, it was restored in 1989 (per trade sources) and designated nationally in 2012.
Risk level: Vulnerable · Not inscribed. METI Traditional Craft Product (25 July 2012). Okinawa Prefecture traditional craft (2010, per Okinawa Kōgei no Mori; a second listing on the same site gives 2011)
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