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Iyo-kasuri (cotton ikat cloth) (Matsuyama City)
Heart-warming Handmade Design
Iyo-kasuri is said to have originated over 190 years ago when Kana
Kagiya watched the changing of a straw-woven roof of a farmer's
house and came up with the idea of using shapes similar to the ones
left imprinted on the old roof by bamboo upholding it, in the design
for cloth. Iyo-kasuri is created through the following painstaking
processes: seikei - formatting the number and the length of vertical
and horizontal threads; seiren - boiling the threads in hot water for
about half a day to strengthen them; kukuri - threading together the
parts to be dyed; senshoku - dying each thread with natural indigo;
ori - weaving the threads into high quality cloth. The long and
elaborate processes are what give the iyo-kasuri its distinctive look,
and allow people to enjoy the warmth of the spirit of the craft.
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