Traditional craft
Arimatsu-Narumi Shibori
有松・鳴海絞
Japan's best-known cotton tie-dye, made with around 100 binding techniques in Arimatsu, an old Tokaido road town in Nagoya.
Key facts
- Officially recognised
- 4 September 1975
- Type
- Dyed textiles
- Region
- Chubu
- Official name in Japanese
- 有松・鳴海絞
- Official area (in Japanese)
- 名古屋市、岡崎市、半田市、刈谷市、知多半島他
A hundred ways to tie a cloth
Shibori is tie-dye: thread is bound tightly into the cloth so dye cannot reach those spots. Arimatsu and Narumi are Japan's leading area for cotton shibori, with around 100 techniques, including stitched nui, spider-web kumo, Miura, dotted kanoko and folded sekka. Indigo shibori shows a lovely shading where the binding softens the colour. It is made in Nagoya and around Aichi.
Many hands, one cloth
A stencil is carved and the design printed onto silk or cotton. The cloth is then bound with thread and dyed. Where the thread held, no dye enters, so when the thread is pulled out the pattern appears. Every step is done by a different specialist.
Souvenirs of the Tokaido
Shibori itself goes back to the Nara period, but Arimatsu-Narumi Shibori began in the early Edo period. It is said that people from Bungo (today's Oita), who came to help build Nagoya Castle, brought the technique. Under the Owari domain's protection, makers invented many refined techniques. Arimatsu sat on the Tokaido highway beside the post town of Narumi, and travellers bought its shibori as souvenirs, which made it famous enough to appear in ukiyo-e prints.
Good to know
- Walk the old Tokaido road in Arimatsu, where merchant houses from the Edo period still line the street.
- Shops sell more than kimono: T-shirts, scarves, hats and parasols are easy shibori gifts, and no two are dyed exactly alike.
Questions travellers ask
Where can I see Arimatsu shibori?
In Arimatsu, Nagoya, along the old Tokaido road with its Edo-period merchant houses and shibori shops.
Is it silk or cotton?
Both are allowed, but the area is best known for cotton shibori.
Where it comes from
More crafts from the same area
Local foods from the same area
Heritage stories from the same area
Sources
We checked the facts on this page against these sources.