International studio (42.1910)

Japanese Art and Artists of To-day.—III. Textiles and Embroidery

Hence the whole means
placing together of bro-
cade : the weft threads,
after the colour has been
selected, being woven by
the help of the draw-boy
on the proper warp
threads, so as to make
pieces of the exact size,
shape and colour required
by the pattern. "Tsuzure-
no-Nishiki" is by no
means common in Japan,
and is exceedingly expen-
sive. Some of the more
elaborate pieces made on
„, the looms of Messrs.

woven silk fabric (" nishiki ) designed by s. koana

Kawashima at Nishijin
occupy as much as five

ye-nishiki "■—"When you return home, wear bro- or six years in the making, the most skilful
cade "; that is, when you go on a journey appear weavers and their assistants working diligently on
successful when you return home. them all this time.

The loom on which the most elaborate of the In the brocades of the West, gold and silver
brocades now made are woven, is practically the threads, sometimes of metal and sometimes of
same as that found in the illustrations of Moronobu leather, have been used. In Japan, however, gold
and other artists, and has been in use in
Japan for some hundreds of years. This
loom necessitates the employment of a
draw-boy, who, perched up aloft, alters the
warp threads at the instruction of the
weaver. It is surprising how excellent is
the result obtained by the skilful Japanese
weaver from what we might be apt to con-
sider as a very primitive machine. This
method of weaving is somewhat similar to
that used in the manufacture of ancient
French tapestry. The Jacquard loom is as
a rule only used for the less expensive silks,
and especially for fabrics in which cotton
is mixed with silk, a considerable variety
of which were invented after the loom was
introduced into Japanese workshops some
twenty-five years ago. These mixed fabrics,
however, had come into general use half-
a-century earlier, in consequence of the
issue of a decree enjoining the people to
refrain from the use of silken garments.

One of the most important as well as
one of the most ancient methods of repro-
ducing a pattern in silk brocade is called
in Japan "Tsuzure-no-Nishiki." The word
Tsuzure means " placing together "—in the
same sense as letters are placed together
to form words—and Nishiki, "brocade." design for brocade or "yuzen" by y. takayama

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