Hokuetsu seppu (Snow Country Tales), by Suzuki Bokushi

An illustration from the book Hokuetsu seppu (Snow Country Tales) by Suzuki Bokushi, dated 1835, showing skeins of ramie thread and long, kimono-length bolts of Echigo chijimi (crepe) being bleached on the snow.

Ramie textiles have been made in Echigo (present-day Niigata) for centuries. The Shōsō-in Repository in Nara holds bast fiber tax cloth from Echigo dating to the mid-700s, and it continued to be an important local product in the centuries to follow. The ramie textile industry for kimono really took off during the Edo period (1603–1868), when Echigo chijimi (ramie crepe) textiles became renowned across Japan for their puckered texture, considered to be cool to the skin in summer. Crepe ramie textiles called Ojiya chijimi is still being woven today in the city of Ojiya, north of Minamiuonuma. At the same time, fine ramie textiles with smooth surfaces remained in high demand for use in samurai vest and trouser sets and summer kimono.

In his 1835 book Hokuetsu seppu (Snow Country Tales), local cultural maven and essayist Suzuki Bokushi (1770 –1842) describes the inherent relationship between the cloth and the snow.

All the work of weaving crepe, from plying the ramie thread to bleaching the cloth, takes place in the snow. Were it not for the natural humidity of our life under the snow, it would be impossible to pull and twist the thread to the thinness—finer than a hair—that is necessary to weave the finest crepe. The fibers break if the air is too dry, and when the fibers break, the thread is weak and likely to snap. […] The thread is spun and twisted in the snow, it is washed in snow waters and bleached on snow fields. There is crepe because there is snow. Echigo crepe owes its fame to the combined powers of man and snow, working hand in hand. In Uonuma County, we say that crepe is a child of the snow. Crepe is also produced in regions with little snow, it is true, but the thread is made differently, and it can’t compare with the crepe of Echigo.
From the 1835 publication Hokuetsu seppu (Snow Country Tales), book 2, by Suzuki Bokushi (1770 –1842). Translation adapted by the author from Suzuki Bokushi, Snow Country Tales: Life in the Other Japan. Jeffery Hunter with Rose Lesser, trans. (Tokyo: Weatherhill, 1986) 62–63.