Japan · Textile / Weaving / Bast and Leaf Fiber
喜如嘉の芭蕉布 (Kijoka no Bashōfu)
Bashōfu (芭蕉布) is cloth woven from the fiber of the ito-bashō, a fiber banana (Musa liukiuensis). Thin, light and crisp, it does not cling to sweating skin, and it clothed Ryukyu in its heat. Under the kingdom the royal household kept large bashō plantations, and the cloth appeared in 15th-century tribute to Ming China and in Satsuma's levies. Until the Meiji era, commoner households grew bashō in their own gardens and wove for themselves. The US occupation burned many plants as mosquito-breeding sites during anti-malaria campaigns, and after the war the craft survived mainly in Kijoka, a hamlet of Ōgimi Village, where Taira Toshiko led its revival. In the makers' own words, weaving is only 1% of the work. The official 23-step process starts with growing the plant, and one bolt takes about 200 plants and two months.
Risk level: Critically Endangered · Not inscribed. National Important Intangible Cultural Property 'Kijoka no Bashōfu' (group designation, Kijoka Bashōfu Preservation Society, 1974); individual holder for 'Bashōfu': Taira Toshiko (2000–2022). METI Traditional Craft Product
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