Japan Heritage story
Tango chirimen: 300 years of silk on Kyoto's north coast
300年を紡ぐ絹が織り成す丹後ちりめん回廊
In Tango, on Kyoto's north coast, you can still hear looms clattering. Since the 1720s the area has woven chirimen, a soft silk crepe, and today it makes about 60% of Japan's kimono fabric.
Key facts
- Theme
- Sea and waterside, Festivals and rituals, Textiles and dyes
- Era
- Edo
- Region
- Kansai
- Official name in Japanese
- 300年を紡ぐ絹が織り成す丹後ちりめん回廊
- Official area (in Japanese)
- 京都府 (宮津市, 京丹後市, 与謝野町, 伊根町)
The story
Tango's damp climate, summed up in the local saying "forget your lunch but not your umbrella", keeps silk threads from snapping, and the area has woven silk since at least the Nara period. When Kyoto's Nishijin weavers invented a new crepe in the Edo period, Tango's own silk stopped selling. In 1720 Kinuya Saheiji of Mineyama, after studying in Nishijin, mastered chirimen, and in 1722 weavers from Kaya brought the technique back too. They taught it freely, and it spread across Tango.
Chirimen has a fine crinkled texture that drapes softly and takes dye beautifully, which made it a favourite base for Yuzen-dyed kimono. In the 1950s and 60s business boomed so hard it was nicknamed "gachaman": one clack of the loom, ten thousand yen.
What to see
- Weaving towns: Mineyama, Omiya, Amino and Yasaka, with sawtooth-roofed mills and weavers' houses.
- Konpira shrine in Mineyama: built by the Kyogoku lords on chirimen wealth.Google Maps 金刀比羅神社 京丹後市 (opens in a new tab)
- Kojima shrine: in the same grounds, to the silkworm god, guarded by rare stone cats to keep mice away.
- Amanohashidate: the famous sandbar sung about in the Miyazu-bushi folk song.Google Maps 天橋立 (opens in a new tab)
Plan your trip with the Kyoto prefecture guide and see more history and heritage.
Good to know
- Listen as you walk through the weaving towns: you may still hear looms at work.
- Pack an umbrella, especially from autumn to winter.
- Look for the guardian cats instead of lion-dogs at Kojima shrine.
Questions travellers ask
What is Tango chirimen?
A silk crepe with a fine crinkled surface, soft and easy to dye, widely used for kimono.
Why does Kojima shrine have cats?
Mice ate silkworms, so silk merchants and farmers placed guardian cats at the shrine to the silkworm god.
Where it comes from
More heritage stories from the same area
- 800 years of Japanese tea in Uji and southern Kyoto
- Aizu's 33 Kannon pilgrimage: faith with a day out
- Asuka: the women who shaped the birth of Japan
- Date Masamune's dazzling culture in Sendai and Matsushima
- Gyoda: the town of tabi storehouses
- Hida no Takumi: 1,300 years of master woodworkers in Takayama
- Iga and Koka: in search of the real ninja
- Izumo: the sacred land where the sun sets
- Kamenose: crossing the landslide heart of the Tatsuta Kodo
- Katsuragi Shugen: where mountain asceticism began
- Kitamaebune: the merchant ships that made Japan's port towns rich
- Lake Biwa Canal: the waterway of hope from Otsu to Kyoto
Local foods from the same area
Crafts from the same area
Sources
We checked the facts on this page against these sources.