Japan · Textile Arts / Counted-Thread Embroidery
南部菱刺し (Nanbu hishizashi); hishi = diamond, sashi = stitching; pattern units are called katakko
Counted-thread embroidery of the Nanbu region of southeastern Aomori Prefecture, centered on Hachinohe, in which cotton thread is stitched over an even number of warp threads of pale-blue hemp cloth, producing long horizontal diamonds. It is the mirror image of the odd-count Tsugaru kogin (CRAFT-2957) and, with kogin and Shonai sashiko, is called one of Japan's 'three great sashiko'. Farm women made it to reinforce and warm hemp work clothes at a time when cotton was scarce; it was stitched into the center panel of three-width aprons, work trousers and jackets. Aomori Prefecture designated it a traditional craft in March 1996.
Risk level: Vulnerable (fewer successors than kogin and thinner literature; kept alive by hobby groups) · Not inscribed. Related worked garments from the Tanaka Chuzaburo collection are designated Important Tangible Folk Cultural Properties.
Bingata (紅型 — crimson/abundant pattern) is the royal court textile dyeing tradition of Okinawa (formerly Ryukyu Kingdom) — the only Japanese regional dyeing tradition with a distinct non-mainland origin: Bingata reflects the Ryukyu…
Urushi-kaki (漆掻き — lacquer scraping) is the practice of harvesting urushi sap from the Toxicodendron vernicifluum lacquer tree — the raw material for all Japanese lacquerware (CRAFT-0460, 0468, 0471).
The koto (琴/箏) is Japan's national instrument — a 13-stringed zither 180cm in length produced from paulownia (桐 kiri) wood.
Braided silk cord made on a braiding stand (kumidai) in the Goshogawara and Kanagi area of western Aomori Prefecture, dyed with apple bark, leaves and flowers and with indigo.
Hand-painted earthenware dolls and whistles made in Hirosaki, Aomori Prefecture, by pressing red-earth-and-sand clay into molds, bisque-firing at about 800 °C and painting by hand over a white ground in yellow, purple and red.
Glazed ceramics made in and around Hirosaki, Aomori Prefecture, from local iron-rich clay, glazed with black tenmoku or with an apple-ash glaze made from burnt apple tree wood, sometimes blended with rice-straw ash in a namako ('sea…
Zlatovez — the hand-embroidery of gold and silver metallic thread onto silk, velvet, and fine wool — is the defining decorative technique of traditional Montenegrin national costume, documented in continuous use for more than three…
Chaozhou embroidery (潮绣) is one of China's Four Famous Embroideries alongside Su, Xiang, and Shu — and the most technically extreme of the four.
The bobbin lace tradition of the Rhineland — historically influenced by the Mechelen (Mechlin) lace tradition of the Spanish Netherlands (now Belgium), whose proximity to the Rhineland through trade routes made Mechelen bobbin lace…
The Hälsinge folk embroidery tradition of Hälsingland in north-central Sweden — the specific Swedish folk embroidery style associated with the UNESCO World Heritage Hälsinge farmhouses (the extraordinary 19th-century decorated farmhouses…
Gu embroidery (顾绣) is the most painterly embroidery tradition in China — developed by the Gu family of Shanghai in the late Ming Dynasty and named after them.
A women's textile tradition among Suriname's Maroon peoples in which a rectangular wrap cloth, the pangi, is constructed and decorated using techniques that have shifted across recognizable historical style periods — patchwork assembly…