Thursday 9 August 2012

It's Better To Travel

After the devastation suffered by Japan last spring, I promised to visit the place, and inject some money into their economy. I've succeeded, I reckon. In the next few weeks, I plan to upload several stories on denim in Japan. I've learned a huge amount about the birth of the Osaka 5 - the group of jeans companies that put Japan on the map for premium denim - and also about the birth, and evolution, of the cotton spinning and weaving industry, which has left us with such a high-quality legacy of denim production. I'll also provide my own brief guide to denim shopping in Tokyo.

Here are just a few photos to hopefully whet your appetite.





Kurashiki - established as the centre of Japanese cotton spinning in 1888.







 Cotton from Zimbabwe, USA, and other location, in the Nihon Menpu warehouse. 







 Edo Ai-dyed yarns, after one to eight dips, at Nihon Menpu, Okayama Prefecture. 







Cotton ginning machine made by Platt Brothers of Oldham, installed at Kurabo - Kurashiki Spinning Mill - around 1915. 

Intriguingly, it was Platt Brothers who later produced the Toyoda Type G automatic loom under licence in the UK. 
The old Kurabo cotton warehouse, Kurashiki. 


Interior of RHRB - named after JD Salinger's novella,  Raise High The Roof Beam, Carpenters.


Toyoda loom - from the 1920s? - in the Evisu showroom at Daikanyama. It's incomplete, but I believe this is one of the celebrated G-series looms that put the Toyoda - now Toyota - company on the map. 


Hinoya Plus Mart, Ueno



























45rpm store, Shibuya

5 comments:

  1. really looking forward to seeing and hearing more about your project, great shots from the off

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  2. Oh, this is going to be good.

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  3. Raise High The Roof Beam, Carpenters by J. D. Salinger, I believe.

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  4. Paul you never disappoint! Hit me up if you know anything about the history of the Real McCoy's. Peace

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