My Japan Weaving Tour – Day 18 – Part 2

Day 18 Part Two. Here is weft ikat being woven on a power loom. I was intrigued with the stick shuttles used in the fly shuttles See more photos of the shuttles that follow.

The stick shuttles wound with the tie dyed threads waiting to be put into a fly shuttle on a power loom. We saw them being wound –many at once maybe 10 at a time and all alike.

The stick shuttle with the weft thread in the fly shuttle being woven on the loom. I couldn’t imagine how the thread came off the shuttle so fast. When the looms were turned on the shuttles zoomed across the warp threads as they were being woven. Maybe this photo is a repeat but you can tell I was intrigued .

Here are 20 stick shuttles on the machine that wound them. A woman set up the shuttles and turned the crank.

Here is a hand tied and hand woven kasuri or ikat fabric by Mr Shoji Yamamura the distinguished kasuri master near Karume. See the next photos to see the dyed threads. In this cloth both the warp threads and the weft threads are tie dyed then matched perfectly when woven. This takes a lot of planning and skill. The light patterns are where only the weft threads were tie dyed.

Threads that were tied dyed. That means where the threads were tied together they resisted the indigo dye and remained white. That is what we call ikat. The Japanese indigo and white fabrics we call kasuri.

The threads for a warp dyed by the master, Shoji Yamamura.