組紐 (Kumihimo)
Kumihimo (組紐 — 'combined threads') is the Japanese braiding tradition producing the silk and cotton cords used for samurai armor lacing (odoshi), obi sash tying cord, tea ceremony equipment, and decorative objects. The tradition uses two main devices: marudai (丸台 — round stand) for circular braids and kakudai (角台 — square stand) for flat braids. The defining technical knowledge is the pattern encoding system: kumihimo patterns are encoded as positional sequences for the bobbins (tama 玉) arranged around the marudai — each move transfers one pair of bobbins to a new position, and the sequence of positions determines the emerging pattern. Complex patterns (e.g., kongo-gumi 金剛組 — the double-helix pattern considered the oldest surviving braid) require maintaining the positional sequence of 16–32 bobbins in memory across hundreds of repeated moves.
Risk level: Endangered · Japan national Important Traditional Craft Product
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