Fluffy Silk

Yoshinori Takitani (Takiyoshi Co., Ltd.) x Kanako Kajihara (Textile Designer) and Yu Yoshimura (Kiwakoto Director)

Brushing is a technique that makes the surface of a fabric fluff edge with a special tool. In Japan, it was established as a technique to make blankets in the bedding industry for half a century. Mr. Yoshi yoshi started the first train as a processing shop specializing in brushing. The Osaka-IzumiOtsu area developed as an OEM production area for major futon manufacturers, and at that time, the process was divided into regions. However, in order to “make good things” without being bound by the common sense of the production area, Mr. Yoshiyoshi, who was a latecomer, gradually expanded the range that he could do in-house, and finally led to the development of his own products. A 100% silk blanket that became a signboard product. The product itself has become a salesman, and it has attracted attention from maisons around the world and has a track record of being adopted in clothing. We listen to the attractiveness of products created by the strong will and commitment of craftsmen.

Yoshimura:
First of all, please tell us about the technology of brushing.

Kajihara:
The process of bringing out the fluff of the fibers on the surface of the fabric is called brushing. Rotate the roller serily and needlecloth, and then run the cloth over it to pull the fibers out of the thread on the surface of the fabric. It is a processing technology that increases the thickness of the fabric, increases the thermal insulation power, and provides a flexible touch.
It is a very old process, and you can see the handguard-like object scratching the surface of the fabric in the murals of Pompeii ruins. Later, in 1684, a brushing machine was first created in Europe using the azami plant. The rolled-out fabric was scratched in one direction with a bruise, and then the fluff was scratched in the opposite direction again. At the World’s Fair in Paris in 1855, a brushing machine with needle cloth rolls was exhibited, and in 1872 a five-roll wire brushing machine was developed to replace the azami brushing machine in the UK. In 1894, a british national brushing machine was installed at a textile company in Osaka, and the production of domestic brushing machines began and developed from Wakayama.

Yoshimura:
Izumi Otsu seems to have developed as a place of bedding, but what was Takiyoshi’s position in the production area?

Takiyoshi:
As for the blanket industry, we started on the back burner. For that reason, we did a lot of things as we wanted, sold them in-house, proposed them to customers, and tried and tested. As for our own products, we didn’t start by deciding to retail at first, but we could dye the dyed yarn with our partners, so we decided to finish it here. We have been able to expand the range that we can do more and more by involving other processing destinations in the region.

Kajihara:
The hair-raising of Takiyoshi is very thick, supple, and has a fluffy feel. Today, I was allowed to look at the flow of production again, and I learned that I have fine-tuned the appearance and shearing process repeatedly and fine-tuned the appearance of facial expressions many times. Also, after listening to the story, I learned that the quality of the raw machine has a great influence. It is considered from the raw material of the yarn, the yarn to the weaving tissue, and I thought that there is a special texture of Mr. Yoshi to this research and the accumulation of knowledge.

Stick to the desire to make good things

Takiyoshi:
riginally, like other companies, the most work was to take care of the fabric, process the hair brush, and pass it on to the next process. One day, when I brushed the fabric I had kept, I couldn’t get a good hair brush at all. If the fabric is bad, the brushing does not go well, why is the fabric bad… I gradually realized that it was because I was stinging the raw materials. The president who is the father is a craftsman up. Therefore, we had a strong desire to make good things, and gradually we started to make our own fabrics, and we started to select materials ourselves. As it happened, we had a relationship with Mr. Matsumura from Kyoto, a trading company specializing in silk yarn, and we decided to try from arranging yarn and making fabrics ourselves. Then, it was able to do the one that the other company had done much better than the one that I had brushed in the cloth brought in by other companies.

Yoshimura:
It is a result of the commitment that it became 100% silk.

Takiyoshi:
Other companies also imitated our house and put out silk brushing. However, even if the superficial thing of silk can be imitated, it seems that other companies were not able to follow it fundamentally.

Kajihara:
The raw material of silk is expensive, and I think that there is a resolution to develop it. There are only a limited number of suppliers, and it’s not a market where anyone can buy good raw materials right now, do they?

Takiyoshi:
There are some people who have said, “If you make cheap stuff, you can make cheaper things and sell a lot of them,” but it’s not interesting to make them with such cheap ingredients. Are you happy to give it to someone if you bought it? And, the first president did not try to do. Because it is not a sales field, but a person on the side of making, it was not in my eyes at all to make using cheap material simply by silk.

Yoshimura:
The overwhelmingly good thing is that you don’t think about the price.

Each product is a salesman

Takiyoshi：
Rather, it was said by the wholesaler, “Why is it not possible for you to have Takiyoshi’s?” in the other side. Fortunately, we didn’t touch any of the ingredients below a certain level, and the image that “Takiyoshi’s blanket is of good quality” was completed, and each product became a salesman and became a reputation. Eventually, the silk itself became higher, and other companies pulled out, and the house remained.

Kajihara:
I came across Takiyoshi’s fabric because I received an introduction from a trading company in Osaka that I should take a look at it. It had been popular since then. It feels light even though it is dense. At the time, I was looking at it as a clothing, so I felt that this lightness was very attractive. The lightness of the appearance and the gap is also a heavy emphasis in product development in recent years.

Takiyoshi:
Well, when we started our products, it was thicker, but in this day and age, the number of elderly people is getting more and more heavy and heavy things are disliked. In the apartment, the house is relatively warm even in winter compared to the old days, so what we can handle has become thinner. If you want to make the fabric thinner and lighter, you won’t be able to use bad material more and more. It is necessary to properly select long raw materials for fibers that can withstand overlapping processes. There is a good raw material, and the design of the structure of the fabric which finishes thinly, the organization which is easy to brush, the hardness of the fabric which is easy to brush, the process of drying with moderate moisture or not, all can be repeated, and it is possible to brush the best state by repeating all subtle adjustments. In everything, I can’t get out of hand.

Kajihara:
In this day and age, it has become commonplace for subcontractors to make their own products and invest their products in the market, but it is amazing that they have continued to carry them out on their own as a forerunner.
We will continue to improve technological innovation and pursuit, and we will continue to improve our market feedback while receiving flexible feedback.

Yoshimura:
You can taste the touch comfort and lightness, of course, and the upper texture. The machines in the workshop themselves were very impressive that there were many things that were not the latest but rather those with the age, and I realized that it was the craftsmanship of Japan that skilled craftsmen made subtle adjustments in all processes and created the best condition to apply fabric to the last brushing machine.

　　
Next time, it is a story of the birth of the textile of the ultra-fine yarn of the natural material made in Yamanashi, Fujiyoshida.