Japan · Textile / Weaving / Float-Weave, Plain and Ikat
与那国織 (Yonaguni-ori)
Yonaguni-ori (与那国織) is the collective name for four textiles of Yonaguni, Japan's westernmost island, from which Taiwan is visible on clear days. The four are: Yonaguni hanaori, a pattern-heddle float-weave that sets small red and yellow 'flowers' into a black-and-white check; dutāchi, a plain-weave ramie-and-cotton check (the gōban gingham among them), the island's own work and festival garment, more than 90% of which is worn locally; shidadi, a white cotton hand-towel with seven colors of float pattern, given as a charm for safe journeys and still tied as a headband on the dead; and kagannubū, a narrow cotton ikat sash, the island's minsā. The flowers are counted in dots: dachinbana (8), ichichinbana (5), duchinbana (4). By one weaver's account, red and yellow 'came from travel': an islander brought back a sash from Taiwan and it was unraveled for its thread. A Korean castaway's 1477 account attests weaving on the island, and cloth went as tribute to the Ryukyu court by the early 16th century. After the war, with yarn unobtainable, islanders unraveled fishing nets to weave.
Risk level: Vulnerable · Not inscribed. METI Traditional Craft Product (18 April 1987). Okinawa Prefecture traditional craft: dutāchi and shidadi (1974), hanaori and kagannubū (1998)
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