386 ART INDUSTRY AND RELATED OCCUPATIONS. 



bound fast underneath with several windings of hemp thread. 

 This knotting of Kanoko-chirimen is a tedious, unpaying process, 

 falling usually to old women and children. When the under-bind- 

 ing is finished, then follows the bath, and dyeing, drying and 

 stretching of the deeply wrinkled material. The threads used for 

 under-binding become free and are pulled out, and the under- 

 bound spots make a white pattern on the Turkish red, peach- 

 blossom or violet ground. 



The Obi, or girdles with which Japanese ladies fasten their long 

 garments (Kimono) at the waist, are made on particular looms, from 

 the finest silk. They are varied in appearance ; sometimes smooth, 

 sometimes ribbed figured fabrics 1 6 to 24 centimeters broad, and 

 3 or 4i meters in length, so that they may be tied in bows at the 

 back. The finest are the Hakata-obi, but the Koyanagi-obi also in 

 thick satin from Kiriu, the ribbed Donsu-obi from Yonezawa and 

 several others are highly prized. 



Garments of brocade, Jap. Nishiki, i.e. heavy fringed silk in- 

 wrought with gold and silver, the richest and costliest which textile 

 industry in general can furnish, have always been used for 

 ceremonial garments by Chinese and Japanese princes, and for 

 the furnishings of the richer theatres and temples. In Kioto the 

 brocade manufacture has stood from the beginning under the 

 special protection of the reigning Mikado, and that it has main- 

 tained itself in full strength to this time, in spite of unfavourable 

 conditions, is due at least in part to the constant imperial protection 

 and encouragement. 



When in 1868 Prince Arisugavva undertook the chief command 

 against the " Eastern Rebels " (adherents of the Tokugawa dynasty), 

 he received from the Mikado the brocade banner and sword, as 

 tokens of the imperial power and cause. After the entry into 

 Yeddo, every Samurai sewed a brocade stripe on his Kimono (coat), 

 over which the inhabitants of the capital of the Tokugawa made 

 merry, calling them the imperial Kingire or brocade rags. 



The high estimation of brocade is manifested also in several 

 proverbial expressions, e.g. : " Kokio ye Nishiki," i.e., " Clothe 

 yourself in brocade when you return home ; " the sense of which 

 is ; " Return not homeward till you have gained something for your- 

 self in the foreign land." This is more beautiful : *' Tzuzure wo 

 kite mo kokoro wa Nishiki," or " He wears rags, it is true, but his 

 heart is of brocade." 



There are two kinds of brocade in Kioto — Ito-nishike, gold- 

 thread brocade, and Aya-nishiki, silk damask brocade, or brocade 

 inwrought with flowers. A beautiful piece of the former, 44 centi- 

 meters broad, and 5 '454 meters long, designed for the Mikado, was 

 said to cost 30 yen or over £6 ; another of the same width and 

 11*5 meters long, 45 yen, about £() ; and for a third, 71 centimeters 

 long and 8*5 centimeters broad, 50 yen, or ;6^io, was offered. 



The use of gold and silver paper in the Japanese brocades has 



