Authentic Ojiya-chijimi and Echigo-jofu:
Important Intangible Cultural Properties

Production of Ojiya-chijimi and Echigo-jofu Using Authentic Methods

Nishiwaki Shoten, now in its 240th year, is involved in the production of Ojiya-chijimi and Echigo-jofu using authentic methods. Our unique labels offer proof of manufacture by those means. By clearly disclosing detailed information on production methods and on the strict conditions under which national Important Intangible Cultural Properties are designated, we guarantee quality. This is the Nishiwaki Shinjiro way.

Nishiwaki Shinjiro manufactures high quality Ojiya-chijimi and Echigo-jofu by a method that is recognised worldwide as of sufficient importance to merit passing on to future generations. We aim at further improvement in the ever more painstaking manufacture of our products.

Authentic Ojiya-chijimi and Echigo-jofu

1950 First Designation as an Important Intangible Cultural Property.
2009 First Japanese fabric registered as UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Authentic Ojiya-chijimi and Echigo-jofu are fabrics originating and developed through the experience, wisdom and patience of people living in a region of heavy snowfall. The fabric is now manufactured under conditions strictly controlled by Important Intangible Cultural Property registration, namely, 1) yarns must be choma ramie and be hand-spun, 2) kasuri-pattern tying must be undertaken by hand (tekubiri), 3) a ground loom called an izari-bata must be used, 4) the chijimi must be finished with yumomi, or crumping in hot water, and jofu by foot trampling and 5) fabric must be exposed on snow. These manufacturing processes are together registered as an Important Intangible Cultural Property by the Japanese government, and as an Intangible Cultural Heritage by UNESCO.

Currently some 40 tan (one-kimono-length bolt) of this fabric are produced annually. It is an extremely rare and high-quality woven fabric intended for use in summer. Production involves more than 70 separate hand-working processes, including exposure on snow - a particular feature of this region. Pure traditional methods historically proven are employed at every step, from selection of raw materials to processing. The fabric is used to make cool kimonos that seem to share the transparency and evanescence of snow.

Today the aging of skilled craftspeople means a decrease in production and it is difficult to pass on the techniques. Neither quality nor quantity of production can match the standards of decades ago.

Authentic Ojiya-chijimi and Echigo-jofu are among most important items dealt in by Nishiwaki Shoten ever since its establishment. One reason why we particularly cherish these fabrics is because Shinjiro Nishiwaki IX, head of the company in 1953, felt their continued existence by traditional techniques was threatened. Accordingly, he set up a preservation association in the hope of future registration as Important Intangible Cultural Properties. Ultimately, registration was possible though the shared efforts of private companies and local government, such as Eiji Miya of Niigata Prefecture and Yoshio Uchiyama of former Ojiya Town. We would like to credit those predecessors in the Uonuma region who, still in the aftermath of war, took key decisions on what needed to be preserved, and went on to secure that registration.

Shinjiro Nishiwaki IX wrote, ‘I would do anything to save these techniques, but it is not right to force the people to preserve their traditions unwillingly.’ He always respected the anonymous craftspeople who knew the techniques that constituted the traditions. He went on, ‘I wish to dedicate this book to the generations of anonymous craftspeople devoted to the work of making chijimi, ever since the Edo Period. I praise and respect their labour and struggles’. We too believe that the spirit of our predecessors must be kept alive and that it is essential to applaud anonymous craftspeople and their techniques. By this Ojiya-chijimi and Echigo-jofu will be passed on to future generations.

In 2013, Nishiwaki Shoten celebrates 240 years since its foundation. We asked ourselves the basic questions once again. What is beauty? What is excellence? Shinjiro Nishiwaki IX’s passion for, and faith in, the creation of textiles gives us the perfect answer. He only dealt in high-quality goods and showed rectitude throughout his career. He refused goods that did not live up to his standards. The total number of one-kimono-length bolts of authentic fabric produced in 1956, just after registration, was 21, among which 8 bolts were produced by Nishiwaki Shinjiro. We feel extremely proud of his unflagging efforts to produce fabrics using original methods.

Soetsu Yanagi, the well-known founder of the Mingei Movement, coined the expression ‘beauty of usefulness’. It is less well known that Yanagi was also a serious admirer of Echigo-chijimi, and he once said, ‘the nobility and beauty of chijimi derives from the elaborate, painstaking and honest labour of its makers.’ We are still determined to preserve and pass on this precious craftsmanship which, already in 1950s, Shinjiro IX saw in crisis and on the edge of extinction.

Our unique labels offer proof of manufacture by those means. By clearly disclosing detailed information on production methods and on the strict conditions under which national Important Intangible Cultural Properties are designated, we guarantee quality. This is the Nishiwaki Shinjiro way.

Nishiwaki Shinjiro manufactures high quality Ojiya-chijimi and Echigo-jofu by a method that is recognised worldwide as of sufficient importance to merit passing on to future generations. We aim at further improvement in the ever more painstaking manufacture of our products.