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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.