Kyoto Jacquard

Color in thread. Woven in Kyoto, worn only on the inside.

theurah-kyoto-jacquard-vintage-loom-weaving

THE LOOMS

Kyoto

Looms built decades ago are still running.

The pattern reaches the loom as holes punched into pattern cards —
the same mechanism as the jacquard loom that Kyoto weavers brought back from Lyon in 1872.

Today, a pattern can be sent as data and woven straight from a file.
Yet in this workshop, the pattern cards and the old looms keep running.

Old machines stop when the hands leave them.
They run only because someone tends them, every day.
The lining of THE URAh is woven in those hands.

theurah-kyoto-jacquard-punch-card-artisan

THE PATTERN CARDS

Before the cloth, there is paper.

What the loom reads is not data. It is paper.
The pattern becomes a chain of punched cards, bound one after another and hung on the loom.
The loom reads each hole and lifts the warp threads, one by one, until the pattern appears.

It is the same mechanism as the jacquard loom that Kyoto weavers brought back from Lyon in 1872.

One draws the pattern. One makes the cards. One sets the loom. One weaves.
Before it becomes cloth, it passes through many hands.
This is the cloth you wear.

theurah-kyoto-shippo-pattern-jacquard-lining

THE SHIPPŌ

Seven Treasures

Circle overlaps circle, without a break.

This pattern is called shippō, written with the characters for "seven treasures."
In Buddhism, these were the seven most precious things.
The list differs from sutra to sutra, but it includes gold, silver, lapis lazuli, crystal, giant clam shell, coral, and agate.
Ruri, one of the four colors of the lining, is named for lapis lazuli — one of these seven treasures.

The circles overlap one another and extend endlessly in every direction.
And so shippō came to stand for the bonds between people.
A bond that is never broken is worth as much as the seven treasures.
That is what this pattern means.

It was not the pattern chosen for this jacket from the start.
We chose it once we knew what it meant.

Woven on the inside, it is seen by no one but you.

  • Bishu MELTON Wool

    Water on wool. Tightened by water, still standing through the years.

    To Bisyu 

  • Himeji Kurozan Leather

    Lacquer on leather. Born by hand, polished by time.

    To Himeji 

  • Hanyu Tailoring

    Needle through cloth. The finest work lies where no one looks.

    To Hanyu