CRAFTSMAN
Kawashima Selkon – Nishijin textiles, interior decoration
A company that conveys culture, while continuing to evolve
This is a company that creates products such as stage curtains for stages and theaters, festival curtains used during the Gion Festival, kimono obi and even non-flammable curtains, preserving all manner of weaving techniques in-house while at the same time ensuring both technological continuity and innovation.
The company’s policy of tradition and innovation co-existing in-house is a point worthy of respect. The company protects the technology involved in creating the valuable crested velvet used in the restoration of historical buildings, and to ensure that its technology does not get rusty, the company has an internationally recognized textile designer on staff who produces luxury curtains. This is a company of strong volition that preserves and disseminates culture cultivated over the years and creates new history.
- KAWASHIMA SELKON TEXTILES CO., LTD.
- Established in Tenpo 14 (1843). Involved in the production of fabric for traditional Japanese clothing, traditional and artistic textiles and in interior decoration. At the Kawashima Museum of Textiles and Culture operated by the company itself, some 160,000 historically valuable dyed and woven items and original drawings are housed, which serve to convey to future generations the culture cultivated throughout Japan’s history.
To weave Kawashima Selkon’s distinctive fine curtain textiles, fine threads are employed on the weaving machine.
While being set up for mass production, the company preserves its hand looms even now, and many artisans use these to create kimono obi and textiles for other Japanese-style accessories. They also maintain the techniques used in the restoration of historical buildings that are utilized once every few decades.
The stage curtains used on stages and in theaters are woven at the company’s factory in Kyoto. The total length of the curtains measures 24 meters. Between three and six artisans work to weave approximately 10 centimeters each per day; it takes around 3 months to complete a curtain. This is one of the techniques that Kawashima Selkon Textile preserves and continues to refine.
