Traditional craft
Shiozawa Tsumugi
塩沢紬
A refined silk ikat from snow country in Niigata, patterned with tiny crosses called mosquito ikat and woven thread by thread to match the design.
Key facts
- Officially recognised
- 17 February 1975
- Type
- Woven textiles
- Region
- Chubu
- Official name in Japanese
- 塩沢紬
- Official area (in Japanese)
- 南魚沼市
Tiny crosses, quiet elegance
Shiozawa Tsumugi is made in Minamiuonuma in Niigata. Its patterns are built from minute crosses, called kagasuri or mosquito ikat, and tortoise-shell motifs, which give it a calm, refined look. The warp is raw silk and the weft is hand-spun silk floss.
Matched thread by thread
The pattern is rubbed and tied into the threads before weaving. At the loom, the weaver lines up each patterned thread by hand with the drawing, so the tiny crosses come out sharp.
From hemp to silk
Weaving in Shiozawa is ancient: a hemp cloth woven here in the Nara period is kept in the Shosoin treasure house in Nara. In the Edo period weavers applied the techniques of their famous ramie cloth to silk, and Shiozawa Tsumugi was born.
Good to know
- Up close, count the crosses: the smaller and sharper they are, the more skill the weaving took.
- Shiozawa is on the Joetsu Line near the ski resorts of Minamiuonuma, so it pairs well with a winter trip.
Questions travellers ask
What is kagasuri?
Mosquito ikat: a pattern of very small crosses, said to look like a swarm of mosquitoes.
How is Shiozawa Tsumugi different from Honshiozawa?
Both come from Shiozawa. Shiozawa Tsumugi uses a hand-spun floss weft, while Honshiozawa is a raw-silk crepe with a crinkled surface.
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.