Weaving on, in this place

Karami weaving began here in 1956, at Tatsuruhama Orimono. Chairman Kitayama's father-in-law brought in the traditional weaving knowledge of the Kiryū textile district and built a system for producing Karami cloth on power looms. From the shuttle looms of the early years to rapier looms in 1997: each change was an effort to keep weaving an inherited craft on the equipment of its time.

In 2004 the textile divisions of the former Kishi Shoji group — Tatsuruhama Orimono, Shio Orimono and others — were brought together, and TECHNOWIN began. The years that followed brought the bankruptcy of the parent company, Kishi Shoji, and civil rehabilitation proceedings. Through all of it, the efforts of Chairman Kitayama and of the people who held the company and the factory floor together kept the looms and the craft safe to this day.

Now it is our turn to take that work forward. What we inherit is not only assets — the mill and the looms. It is the knowledge and experience to read the yarn, adjust the machine and produce a delicate weave. And it is the responsibility to repair and renew ageing buildings and equipment, to face looms whose parts are no longer made, and to prepare an environment in which weaving can continue.

Those before us took in new techniques, changed their equipment, and carried this through hard times. Our task is to hand it on in a form the next generation can use. Carrying the ability to weave that grew up in this place into the future — that is what inheritance means to me.

Renewing the buildings and the equipment. And passing the skill built up on the factory floor from person to person. Carrying Karami weaving into the future means moving on both of these without delay.

Until now, TECHNOWIN has woven mainly as a contract manufacturer for the large synthetic-fibre makers. Meeting the quality asked of us, giving shape to difficult weaves — those years are what built the skill we hold today. At the same time, our name, and the people who weave the cloth, rarely reached the person who used it.

From here we want to speak about our own craft in our own words. We are taking up work whose value is recognised directly by the people who handle the cloth and wear it, and returning what that earns to the mill and to passing the craft on. We came to see this as a new way to keep weaving.

In Noto there is a culture of Zen rooted in daily life. And for many years TECHNOWIN has woven the cloth used for Buddhist robes; that cloth has clothed a great many priests. Even where our name was not known, the lengths we wove were there through days of prayer and practice.

Until now we have supported Zen quietly, through the work of weaving. From here, while continuing that work with care, we want to carry something of the spirit of Zen ourselves, through cloth. To give our full attention to the work in front of us, and to hand on what we have received. That is what we are putting into the things we make.