Japan · Textile / Weaving / Silk Pongee and Ikat
久米島紬 (Kumejima Tsumugi)
Kumejima tsumugi (久米島紬) is a hand-woven silk pongee from Kumejima, west of Okinawa Island, and is often called the root of Japanese tsumugi. Its signature is a glossy black ground carrying brown and yellow ikat. The black comes from mud: yarn is first dyed dozens of times, reportedly around 80, with the tannin-rich plant dyes guru (Smilax china) and tekachi (Rhaphiolepis indica). It is then steeped in gray mountain mud, where iron reacts with the tannins, and the cycle of mud and tekachi alternates until the brown turns black. The mud-dyeing season runs about a month from late October, and neighbors work together under the Okinawan ethic of yuimāru. All dyes are island plants, and part of the silk is raised on the island. Weaving techniques are said to have arrived with southern trade around the 14th century and sericulture from China. The cloth was paid as poll tax from the early Edo period into the Meiji era, woven to royal pattern books (mīzu-chō). Finishing by kinuta mallet gives it its supple sheen.
Risk level: Vulnerable · Not inscribed. National Important Intangible Cultural Property 'Kumejima Tsumugi' (group holder: Kumejima Tsumugi Preservation Society, 2004). Okinawa Prefecture intangible cultural property 1977. METI Traditional Craft Product (17 February 1975)
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