About Weaving
Weaving at yamamayu begins in inherited memory and continues in the hands of the present.
yamamayu cloth does not come into being simply because there is thread.
It is born from time spent facing the loom, from decisions made by hand, and from tools and knowledge that have been carried forward across generations.
This page gathers the origins of weaving at yamamayu, the structure of leno weaving, the looms inherited by the studio, and the work that still lies ahead.
This is not only a page about technique. It is also a page about memory, rhythm, tools, and the way cloth continues through time.
The Origin of Weaving Here
In 1894, in Hachioji, Tokyo, Nikaido Weaving was founded in a town long shaped by textiles.
From that lineage, the hands, tools, and ways of seeing cloth have continued into what is now yamamayu.
Hachioji grew as a weaving town, moving from handlooms to power looms while carrying forward many kinds of woven structure. That current still remains quietly within yamamayu cloth today.
Born from a weaving lineage in Hachioji, yamamayu carries forward not only tools and techniques, but a way of looking at cloth.
Inherited Looms
The studio still works with old power looms that are maintained and adjusted by hand.
There are no automatic sensors to stop at every broken thread. The weaver must watch, listen, and feel, raising the cloth one beat at a time.
Alongside them, yamamayu also keeps and uses inherited foot-operated handlooms. The studio now has fifteen handlooms in all, and three of them support the present daily making.
Many old tools for dyeing, weaving, and spinning also remain in the studio. They are not only traces of the past, but things that may continue into future cloth and future learning.
These looms are not displayed as relics. They remain working companions in the making of cloth.
About Leno Weaving
Leno weaving is a structure in which warp threads cross around the weft before it passes through.
Because of this, the cloth holds transparency, air, and stability at the same time.
In Japan, airy woven structures such as sha, ro, and ra belong to this lineage. At yamamayu, leno weaving is one of the central languages of the cloth — the reason light can pass through it, air can move through it, and shadow can quietly rise from the threads.
Leno weaving gives the cloth air, light, and structure at the same time. It is one of the essential languages of yamamayu’s textiles.
The Work Ahead
In 2025, Keiko Nakagawara restarted a wide wooden loom for the first time in about forty years. It had once been given to her by her husband as a wedding gift, and on it she wove a 100 cm wide silk furoshiki.
It was a moment that showed how a single loom can carry both family memory and the form of a new work.
At the same time, yamamayu is working toward making leno weaving possible on handlooms as well as on power looms. A leno attachment and jacquard device brought from Kyoto have been fitted to a handloom so that older knowledge might live again through present hands.
In the future, the studio in Takashita may also become a place where these old handlooms and tools can be used not only for making, but for learning and workshops as well.
The future of weaving here is not separate from the old tools. It grows by letting them live again.
Preparing to Weave
Cloth begins before the loom is threaded.
Warping — arranging the number, length, tension, and order of the warp — is the entrance where lines begin to become a surface.
At yamamayu, a modified warping machine is used for long and wide warps, while a wooden warping frame is used for smaller experiments and limited works. The process of warping is gathered separately on its own page.
Before weaving comes the quiet order of warping — where length, number, tension, and sequence are prepared.
Related Reading
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For those who would like to know the studio more deeply, see the places where weaving can be experienced, or view the finished works, these pages continue from here.
山まゆの里染織工房 