Protected local food
Iyo Raw Silk
伊予生糸
Raw silk from Seiyo in Ehime, reeled slowly from fresh, chilled cocoons. The thread keeps the silkworm's natural crimp, so it is glossy, soft and airy.
Key facts
- Registered as a protected name
- 2 February 2016
- Region
- Shikoku
- Official name in Japanese
- 伊予生糸
- Official area (in Japanese)
- 愛媛県西予市
Silk that keeps its crimp
A silkworm spins its thread in S-shaped waves. Iyo silk is pulled from the cocoon slowly and gently, so those waves survive in the finished thread. That makes it bulky, glossy and soft to the touch.
A rare way of reeling
Seiyo city in Ehime is one of the few places that still uses namaguri, reeling from fresh cocoons kept chilled rather than dried. The silk is drawn from many cocoons at once on machines that run slowly with little tension.
Good to know
- The Nomura Silk Museum in Seiyo shows silk reeling and weaving and sells silk goods.
- Seiyo is in southwest Ehime, also home to the Uwa Rice Museum, a former wooden school.
Questions travellers ask
Is this a food?
No. It is one of the non-food products in Japan's GI register.
What is raw silk?
Silk thread as it comes off the cocoon, before it is degummed and processed into fabric.
Where it comes from
Crafts from the same area
Heritage stories from the same area
Sources
We checked the facts on this page against these sources.