Japan · Textile / Weaving / Cotton Narrow-Band Float-Weave
読谷山ミンサー (Yuntanza Minsā)
Yomitanzan minsā (読谷山ミンサー) is Yomitan's narrow cotton sash, about 10 cm wide. Where other Okinawan minsā carry white ikat, Yomitan's is covered in raised flower and stripe patterns. They are made by gūshibana ('skewer flower'): the weaver picks up the warps to be floated with a bamboo skewer. Its design units are shared with Yomitanzan hanaori: jinbana (coin), kajimayā (pinwheel) and ōjibana (fan), combined with more than thirty geometric patterns, kasuri and stripes. The warp is dense, 32 ends per centimeter, 320 across a 10 cm sash. The technique shows strong Southeast Asian influence. It spread in the Ryukyu Kingdom era, died out in the Meiji era, and was revived from 1964 together with Yomitanzan hanaori. The revival had few looms and no one who knew the dyeing, so a chemistry graduate who joined in 1973 worked out dye and mordant reactions from theory. The cooperative's natural dyes include guru (Smilax china), dug each year by about 100 members in a single outing and stored buried in the ground so the tubers don't dry out.
Risk level: Stable · Not inscribed. METI Traditional Craft Product (2 June 1976)
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