Jacquard Loom

Cotton

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     Cotton refers to plants in the genus Gossypium. (5) Cotton is a shrubby perennial usually ranging from 1-2 meters that grows best in a warm humid climate. The plants develop bolls which mature 55 to 80 days after the flower first blooms. These bolls burst open when fully mature to reveal clumps of cotton up to 2.5” long attached to 7-10 seeds. These bolls are then ideally harvested by hand, or harvested by machine which results in dirtied cotton and therefore more cleaning and more waste (5). Warmer temperatures are ideal for growing cotton, so after spreading to Japan it was first grown significantly in Ryukyu and other southern regions (6).

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     After harvest, cotton must be detangled and cleaned before spinning. In Japan this was done with a bow, called wata-uchi-yumi. The string was plucked to vibrate the cotton, fluff it, and shake dust and dirt out. I am including an image of an equivalent process done in India(2). To prepare the fluffed cotton for spinning it was wrapped tightly around smooth bamboo joints called shino (4). The cotton that is then slid off the shino clings to itself forming a tube called yoriko which can then be spun. Cotton prepared this way needs only to be stripped of its seeds, cleaned, and rolled before spinning. None of the steps is especially material intensive or time consuming, and little of the harvest is wasted in the process making it the easiest to prepare of all the fibers commonly used in traditional Japanese textiles. On top of that, cotton accepts dyes easily. Therefore it can be no great surprise that in the 1700s, only about one hundred years after it’s introduction to Japan cotton spread to become the fabric of the commoners in Japan much like it did in much of the rest of the world (6).

     The late Nara, early Heian period cotton was introduced to Japan from China and began to be commercially grown in Japan (6). Cotton was imported from China early in the 15th century and from India as well in the latter part of the century. In the 16th century Japan adopted Chinese cotton cultivation methods and began domestic production (1).  Once successfully introduced and grown, cotton grew rapidly in popularity as a fiber that was both easier to produce and more receptive to dye than ramie. Grown especially in western regions due to their moderate climate and fertile land, newly introduced and more efficient home-based spinning wheels and weaving looms allowed the price of cotton to fall. With the introduction of cotton came a production method, much like that which had historically been practiced in the west, where families processed cotton in their homes with women spinning and weaving cotton for the use of their households and for sale for added income. In the 1870’s milling equipment was imported to Japan from the west, but because of the high manufacturing price and good quality of the milled cotton it was initially priced so high that many could not afford it. Therefore, although Japan had begun to industrialize its cotton production methods, cotton continued to be produced primarily in rural homes for quite some time (1).

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     Although Japan has historically exported some of its cotton, it seems likely that, if only due to space constraints, throughout all of Japan’s history a significant portion of its cotton has been imported (3). In Northern Japan cotton was sought after because it holds heat better than Ramie (6), but because of the cold climate, it could not be produced. Those that could afford to had cotton shipped from the western areas where it was produced, so in the Edo period seafarers sailed up and down the coasts of Japan bringing discarded indigo fabric to be sold to the farmers up north (3). 

     Cotton is the only fiber traditionally used in Japan that has a short staple. Each of the other fibers that I have researched so far that have historically processed in japan have significantly longer fibers. Hemp and Camie have staples that can range in length from ten to twelve inches up to perhaps a couple feet, depending on how well the fibers were preserved when extracting them from the plants. Silk’s staple is exceptionally long. Because an individual fiber of silk covers an entire cocoon, it is too long to measure the fiber and is thus considered a continuous, not staple fiber. Cotton, on the other hand, has a staple of about half an inch, sometimes shorter. The problems one runs into when spinning a short staple fiber are, more or less, the opposite of those that one faces when spinning long staple fibers. The processes required to prepare fibers for spinning are also very different.

The longer the staple of the fiber, the more the individual fibers in a thread matter. When making fine silk, spinners will often count the fibers and add them one by one as the last fiber runs out to maintain the same number of fibers throughout the entire thread. Hemp, ramie, and silk are drafted to the desired thickness before they are spun. This allows for a cleaner thread and ensures that unwanted fibers are not spun and locked into the thread creating lumps. Cotton on the other hand, because of its short staple, requires the un-drafted fibers to be spun slightly so that they have enough structure to be then drafted out to the desired thickness.

1.       Austin, Jim. “Short History Of Japanese Textiles.” Kimonoboy, 1 July 2018, www.kimonoboy.com/short_history.html.
2.       Company School. “A Cotton Dresser or Carder.” Agnsw, Art Gallery NSW, www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/9643/.
3.       “Driving the Development of Japan’s Cotton Spinning Industry as a Direct Importer of Cotton.” Japan Cotton Trading Co., Ltd. | Sojitz History, Sojitz, 2014, www.sojitz.com/history/en/company/nihon-menka/.
4.       Tamagawa, Kanji. “The Role of Cotton Spinning Books in the Developments of the Cotton Spinning Industry in Japan.” International Conference, Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers, www.jsme.or.jp/tsd/ICBTT/conference02/KanjiTAMAGAWA.html.
5.       Weigmann, Hans-Dietrich H. “Cotton.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 8 Feb. 2019, www.britannica.com/topic/cotton-fibre-and-plant.
6.       Wiki.samurai-archives.com. (2017). Cotton - SamuraiWiki. [online] Available at: https://wiki.samurai-archives.com/index.php?title=Cotton [Accessed 6 May 2019].
7.        https://pixabay.com/photos/cotton-plant-close-up-2843808/
8.  https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fisherman%27s_hanten_from_Japan._c._1725,_Honolulu_Museum_of_Art_4304.JPG