Session IV : Crafts as Cultural Resources

Bashōfu is woven from threads of fibers extracted from the Itobashō wild banana plant (Musa balbisiana var. liukiuensis). Because clothing made of bashōfu is light and breathable, all classes of people of the Ryukyu Kingdom (1429 - 1879) favored it in the highly humid summer. Bashōfu was roughly classified into two quality levels: premium bashōfu for high-class people’s clothing and for trading, and rough bashōfu for the masses. Nowadays only premium bashōfu is produced as a sophisticated traditional craft in Okinawa, and attracts both academic and public interest. We have, however, proceeded with scientific research into rough bashōfu to investigate the potential of rough bashōfu as a wearable textile. Why has rough bashōfu been overlooked up to now? Some attention was paid to bashōfu by the mingei (folk craft) movement and the Japanese kimono market, but only in general, which led to rough bashōfu for the common people being neglected or forgotten. In 1942, during the Pacific War, the Japanese philosopher and the mingei movement leader Sōetsu Yanagi published The Story of Bashōfu, in which he praised its beauty and authenticity. However, he did not distinguish premium bashōfu from the rough type, and simply stated that the best place for bashōfu production was the former capital, Shuri, because clothing for the royal family had been produced there. After the collapse of bashōfu production following the 1945 Battle of Okinawa and the subsequent US military occupation, Toshiko Taira, who was encouraged by the the mingei movement, succeeded in re-starting bashōfu production in Kijoka, Okinawa around 1950. Thereafter, she and her colleagues met the demand from US soldiers, and in the late 20th century, from the Japanese kimono market. The Japanese government designated Bashōfu in Kijoka as an Important Intangible Cultural Property in 1974, two years after Okinawa’s reversion to Japanese administration from the US military government. In this study, we will examine reasons why rough bashōfu had been neglected in Okinawan and Japanese history and look at its potential as a future textile.