"Making tsumugi fabric with needle", Honba Oshima Tsumugi Fabric

Honba Oshima Tsumugi uses silk threads are resist-dyed (kasuri) in both the warp and weft to create setatiled "splash" patterns when woven. Up until mid-Meiji period (late 19th century), the kasuri patterns where made using basho thread (Japanese banana plant) to hand-bind the silk threads. By the Meiji 40's (1907), Ieo Nagae from Amami-Oshima invented a kasuri technique called Orishime-gasuri using a binding loom (shimebata) which made it possible to create the unique intricate kasuri patterns characteristic to Honba Oshima Tsumugi.