Nearly all of the islands forming an arc from the southern tip of Kyushu to the northeastern edge of Taiwan belong to the subtropical zone located between the temperate zone and the tropics, producing a dynamic natural environment in which the ecosystems of both climate zones are intricately overlapped.

In this region, cultures different from those of the Japanese archipelago, influenced by both the Eurasian continent and maritime Asia, have been passed down since ancient times. This is epitomized by the Ryukyu Kingdom, a maritime nation that developed through diplomacy and trade with China, Japan, the Korean peninsula, and Southeast Asia from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century. At its peak, its sphere of influence extended from Amami Oshima Island to the Yaeyama Islands, and its territory also included the World Natural Heritage Sites of Amami Oshima Island, the northern part of Okinawa Island, and Iriomotejima Island.

People have lived modestly but tenaciously amid this distinctive topography consisting of beautiful coastlines surrounded by coral reefs and dense inland forests. A multitude of cultures have emerged that are in close touch with nature and receive its bounty. One of them that stands out particularly for its uniqueness is the culture of textiles.

The textiles of Okinawa are spectacularly diverse, including Ryukyu Kasuri, made mainly with silk threads, Miyako Jofu, made with threads created from the fiber of the ramie plant, known as choma in the local dialect, and Yaeyama Minsah, alleged to have possibly originated in Afghanistan.

Another Okinawan textile is Kijoka Bashofu. All the stages of its production, including growing Japanese banana trees on plantations, harvesting them, spinning the fibers into thread, dyeing, and weaving the fabric, is performed via manual labor. Completing this precious fabric requires a staggering amount of time unimaginable in our current industrialized era.

Bashofu kimonos in earthy beige tones were everyday wear for ordinary Okinawans prior to World War II. The fabric is thin and stretchy, feels soft, and does not cling to the body. Its high quality is also attested by the fact that it was worn by the Ryukyuan royal family and prized as an item for trade with China and the Tokugawa shogunate.

Although Bashofu is said to have once been produced throughout Okinawa, it was in danger of disappearing in the wake of World War II. A central figure in the revival of this important aspect of Okinawan culture was the late Toshiko Taira, who was born in the community of Kijoka in Ogimi Village. Taira, who was serving in a female volunteer corps in Okayama Prefecture at the end of the war, returned to her war-ravaged hometown and devoted herself to revitalizing the traditional textile with support and encouragement from people involved in the “folk craft” movement founded by the philosopher Soetsu Yanagi.

Currently, there are over 2,000 square meters of Japanese banana tree plantations in the community of Kijoka, where a preservation society and business cooperative lead efforts to train successors while producing Bashofu fabric. At the Ogimi Village Bashofu Center, a base for people involved in Bashofu production, visitors can observe the work process and experience stripping and spinning the fibers as well as trying on Bashofu kimonos (prior reservation and fee required).

Kijoka Bashofu Business Cooperative: “Not a single machine is used to grow the Japanese banana trees, strip the fibers, spin and twist the threads, bind the patterns for resist dyeing, dye the threads, decide on the designs, or weave the fabric. All of the materials are gathered from nature here in Okinawa. Although it takes a lot of effort and patience, it’s an important aspect of our culture that has been preserved for centuries.”

Amami Oshima Island is also home to one of Japan’s most famous textiles, Oshima Tsumugi. It is considered to be one of the world’s three great textiles alongside Gobelin tapestry in France and Persian carpet in Iran. Since few written accounts remain, its history is unclear. However, based on the listing of “brown silk-woven cloth presented by a southern island” in a Nara-period ledger of offerings preserved in the Shosoin Repository of Todaiji Temple, its original form is thought to already have existed about 1,300 years ago, and islanders have passed it down to this day.

“Oshima Tsumugi is synonymous with silk textiles, and kimonos woven from it are the ultimate in stylish garments. It’s said that in olden times, men and women alike aspired to wear it someday.”
Those are the words of Hirokazu Minami, the operator of Yumeorinosato, a facility that collects materials related to the textile culture of Amami Oshima Island and also offers visitors hands-on programs such as trying on a kimono or weaving on a loom. The production process of Oshima Tsumugi consists of over thirty steps each conducted through the division of labor, including drafting the design, dyeing, and weaving, and this valuable museum brings them all under one roof.

Sericulture once flourished on the Amami Islands, and Tsumugi fabric was woven from handspun silk threads. Until the islanders were required to supply it as tribute to the rulers of Satsuma Domain during the eighteenth century, they apparently used it for everyday wear.
The diverse patterns of Oshima Tsumugi are created using a highly sophisticated resist-dyeing technique called Kasuri that combines pre-dyed warp and weft threads. First, an intermediary textile is woven just to dye the threads. This textile, called Kasuri Mushiro, is then unraveled, and the threads are rewoven according to the design of the finished Oshima Tsumugi textile. Naturally, this is all done by hand, without the use of machines. The process, which takes over a year to complete for a single bolt of fabric, gives birth to patterns whose intricacy is unrivaled by any other textiles.

Minami offers fascinating insight into the myriad patterns reminiscent of ancient hieroglyphs.
“The patterns used for Oshima Tsumugi textiles represent the rich ecosystem of the island. From tropical motifs such as coral, cycads, hibiscus, and pit vipers to stars, fisheyes, sea urchins, and bamboo baskets, our islander ancestors liked to create designs inspired by the natural world around them.”

Oshima Tsumugi also uses a traditional coloring technique called mud dyeing. On Amami Oshima Island, a geological layer thought to have split off from the Eurasian continent is exposed. Its high concentrations of iron and various other minerals react with the strong tannins found in the bark of the Yeddo hawthorn, a tree that grows in dense subtropical forests, thereby dyeing the intermediary textile a gorgeously rich black.

Minami describes this unique aspect of Amami Oshima’s culture as follows.
“I don’t think there’s any other textile that utilizes nature to the same degree as Oshima Tsumugi. We go into the mountains to harvest Yeddo hawthorn and dye the textiles with mud from the fields. A powder made by crushing dead coral is used to neutralize the dye, and seaweed is boiled into a glue-like paste. Since no chemical technologies are involved, it’s non-polluting. Also, it’s not just the island’s ecosystem that’s utilized; men undertake the hard physical work like binding the Kasuri patterns and mud dyeing, while women’s roles include tasks like separating the silk threads and weaving the fabric. It’s an aspect of our culture that involves all life on the island.”

If you actually touch Bashofu or Oshima Tsumugi textiles, you can clearly sense the natural features of Yanbaru and Amami. These rustically beautiful textiles evoke the sound of waves lapping against bluish white coves or Japanese banana trees swaying in the breeze and the ensemble of the forest played by countless living things.