Wearing Forest, Silk, and Living Light.
In the mountains of Yamanashi and Iwate, we raise tensan silkworms and weave cloth from their cocoons.
Bringing the soft light born of nature into everyday life.
Tensan is a native wild silkworm raised in the mountains of Japan.
It creates pale green cocoons and a distinctive silk that seems to glow softly from within.
At yamamayu, we raise those cocoons, draw out the thread, and connect it into cloth.
This page quietly introduces the background of tensan and how its light becomes textile.
A Quiet Light Born from Tensan
In the mountain landscape of Ichikawamisato, Yamanashi, we raise tensan in the midst of living nature.
There is a mystery beyond words in the way they quietly spin their cocoons on the leaves.
In this region, the work of raising tensan and making thread from the cocoon once existed as part of everyday life.
We continue that time, quietly, within the life of our studio today.
As the climate changes, raising them becomes more difficult each year. Still, we continue, facing the mountain so the lineage will not disappear.
Tensan is rare not only because of its silk, but because it depends on place, season, and patient care.
Weaving the Cocoon’s Own Color
The pale green of the cocoon is natural color itself.
Even when drawn into thread, we preserve that cocoon color as it is, leaving the weft undyed.
The inherent beauty of the cocoon appears within the cloth as a soft luster.
It is not a strong brilliance, but a light that quietly diffuses.
Within a single textile, the time of the forest, the work of the hand, and the story of life itself are woven together in layers.
The pale green of tensan is not added color. It is the cocoon’s own light.
The Story of Tensan
From egg to moth, and then into cloth.
Follow the time of tensan raised in our studio through photographs.
You can also read more on another page about the time of tensan we care for so closely.
From Two Mountain Regions
For several years now, tensan has also been raised in another place that may be thought of as an Iwate counterpart to the work of our Yamanashi studio.
There too, beautiful green cocoons are beginning to be gathered.
The natural atmosphere received in Yamanashi and Iwate differs little by little.
From tensan raised in each place, different expressions of cloth may yet be born.
Tensan raised in different mountain regions carries different climates, different rhythms, and different light.
Continue Reading
After learning the background of tensan as a material, we hope you will continue gently onward to the studio, the journal, and the works themselves.
Home › Collections › Tensan Textiles
山まゆの里染織工房 