Japan · Textile / Weaving / Bast Fiber and Ikat
宮古上布 (Miyako Jōfu)
Miyako jōfu (宮古上布) is a ramie cloth from Miyakojima and Tarama, woven from hand-spliced yarn so fine that a single warp strand is split to about the width of a hair. It is counted among Japan's finest ramie cloths. Most Okinawan textiles draw their patterns in lines. Miyako jōfu works like pointillism instead: countless white crosses about 1 mm across (jūji-gasuri), formed where tiny resist-reserved spots on warp and weft coincide, build up dense indigo all-over patterns. The weaver stops constantly to realign individual threads with a needle, and even a skilled weaver manages only about 20 cm a day. Tradition credits its origin to Inaishi, who in 1583 presented a fine indigo-striped ramie cloth (ayasabi-fu) to the Ryukyu king in thanks for her husband's bravery at sea. From 1637 it was fixed as poll-tax cloth, and the tax's exacting standards are what shaped the technique. Hammering the finished cloth with a 4 kg mallet for about three hours (kinuta-uchi) gives it a waxy sheen. Output peaked at about 15,000 bolts a year in the 1930s. Today it is about 30.
Risk level: Critically Endangered · Not inscribed. National Important Intangible Cultural Property 'Miyako Jōfu' (group holder: Miyako Jōfu Preservation Society, 1978). METI Traditional Craft Product (17 February 1975)
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