About Kuska Workshop

• AREA
• Yosano

Hello everyone. I hope you are well.

I haven’t been to Tango for a while now because of the lockdown, unfortunately. I would like to write about a workshop I visited before the lockdown happened.

The Kuska workshop is beautifully located in a wide valley, next to a small river, with willow trees and fields, and wild flowers growing around it.

Kusunoki-san had the idea of using the local technology of Tango weaving in order to make goods for the fashion industry.

The main product is hand-woven neckties. This needs a special width of loom and Kusunoki-san with his engineering experience customised and rebuilt the looms himself. The looms are not the same width as that needed for kimono bolts.

As neck-ties are cut on the bias, the stripes that the weavers make in the cloth end up as diagonal stripes on the ties.

These high-quality hand-made neckties are sold in Europe as well as Japan. Kuska also make a variety of 100% silk shawls and stoles and also produce some very fashionable ‘’Saki-ori’’ sneakers, etc. The weavers are mainly young people who really want to carry on the craft of weaving.

It is really exciting to see this 300-year-old technology being used in different ways to both keep the tradition alive and continue updating the possibilities for the weaving craft.

See you in the next great feature!