Medieval Japanese Textiles

When you start making Japanese garb, one of your first questions is going to be ‘what sort of fabric should I use?’ And really, the right answer to that is ‘something very affordable, in a plain white, that you can make mistakes on!’ But after you make your first juban or two, you’re going to wonder what patterns and fibres were used in the medieval period, and this guide is aimed at bringing you that information.

Reenactment can be a very expensive hobby, and Japanese personas in particular suffer from the problem of silk’s expense, which is especially high in North America and Europe. Additionally, much of what is available on the Western market is very different from what was used in Japan at the time. However, despite preconceptions of twelve layer silk garments, Japanese people of the medieval era wore a wide variety of fabrics and fibers, and it is possible to find reasonably priced approximations of medieval fabrics, but first, we have to understand what was used.

Because of the length of the article, I have included a table of contents.

• Quick Recommendations
  • First Attempt Kosode
  • Juban & Underlayers
  • Lower Class Kosode
  • Middle Class Kosode
  • Upper Class Kosode
  • Summer Katabira
  • Hakama & Hitatare/Kariginu/Suikan
• Weight of Fabric
  • Extant Kosode Weights
  • Extant Katabira Weights
  • Extant Doubuku Weights
• Recommended Weights
  • Kosode & Dobuku
  • Katabira
• Types of Fabric
  • Silks
    • 平絹 ・Hiraginu/Heikan
    • 練貫・Nerinuki
    • 紬 ・ Tsumugi
    • 綸子・Rinzu
  • Brocades
    • 錦織・Nishikiori ＆ 西陣織・Nishijinori
    • 金襴・Kinran
    • 唐織・Karaori
  • Thin and Sheer Silks
    • 紗・ Sha
    • 絽・ Ro
    • 羅・Ra
• 麻・Asa・Bast Fibers
• 綿・Men・Cotton
• 綾織り・Aya・Twill

Quick Recommendations

If you’re just in a hurry and don’t have time to read the whole article (which is really long enough to almost be a book), I have a few quick and easy recommendations based on what you’re making. These are just the most typical representations with the most reasonably priced options. If you want to understand why to buy these things or want more options, scroll down and read further. The headings are designed so that you can navigate to your chosen topic of interest and look further.

Disclaimer: I discuss this more in the bast fibers section, but linen was not available in period, just hemp and ramie. I added it because it’s more accessible and similar, but if you’re a purist, stick with hemp and ramie.

First Attempt Kosode

This should probably just be a simple white juban or solid color katabira.

Choose 3-5 oz linen, ramie, linen or hemp that is easy to sew and affordable. This means it is not super dancy or slippery, which actually tends to happen with the most expensive linen and hemp because of how finely spun it is. Try to pick something on the tougher side, because you will be ripping some seams as you learn, and this just tears the very fine bast fibers of veil linen or gauze.

If you are on a tight budget, cotton dobby in plain horizontal stripes is similar to one of a few cotton extants we have. For your skin layer, a simple cotton batiste or voile will not be seen by anyone except at the collar.

If you have sensitive skin and can’t stand textures, lyocell satin or twill is fine for middle to upper class personas, and is fairly easy to sew, especially compared to silk.

Hemps and Linens: Fabrics Store, Discount Linen, Hemp Fabric Lab

Rayon Satin: Sartor’s Lyocell Satin, Dharma’s Satin Rayon, Mood’s Satin Rayon Selection, Pure Silks Satin Rayon

Juban & Underlayers

Underlayers go by many names, but I’m referring specifically to the first layer that touches the skin – asetori or 汗取り, and the first kosode that goes over top of it, which is modernly called a juban or hadagi. I have also seen hadakosode in some books.

This really depends on the time of year, but a lightweight hemp, linen or rayon in a washable fabric is going to serve you best for the skin layer. If you’re doing additional underlayers past that for upper class, you can branch out into silk.

Hemp and Linen: 2.8 oz Hemp, 120 GSM Hemp, 80 Lea Hemp, High Quality Handkerchief Linen

Rayon Satin: Sartor’s Lyocell Satin, Dharma’s Satin Rayon, Mood’s Satin Rayon Selection, Pure Silks Satin Rayon

Silk Habotai: PureSilks, Dharma, Thai Silks, EZSilk, Indian Laces and Fabrics

Lower Class Kosode

2-5 oz hemp, linen or ramie, slightly lighter or equal for the lining.

Hemps and Linens: Dharma Hemp Midweight, Soft Lighter Hemp, Affordable Chinese Hemp, Hemp Fabric Lab

Middle Class Kosode

16-8 momme silk habotai face, 14-8 silk habotai lining or fine 2-3 oz hemp, linen or ramie. For vegans who wish to wear imitation silk, lyocell satin in 1-3 oz weights, in lighter weights for both face and lining. Dye with simple shibori, surizome, or leave as a plain color. In period, getting vibrant colors other than deep blues on hemp was tough; bast fibers do not get the same bright colors as silks do from natural dyes. If you want to be accurate in your portrayal, consider toning down your color palette if you are wearing plant fibers (but not rayons and lyocells, which are pretending to be silk).

Hemps and Linens: Dharma Hemp Midweight, Soft Lighter Hemp, Affordable Chinese Hemp, Hemp Fabric Lab

Rayon Satin: Sartor’s Lyocell Satin, Dharma’s Satin Rayon, Mood’s Satin Rayon Selection, Pure Silks Satin Rayon

Silk Habotai: PureSilks, Dharma, Thai Silks, EZSilk, Indian Laces and Fabrics

Upper Class Kosode

Same weight fibers as above, be sure your plant fibers are extremely finely spun and look very ironed and crisp. Patterns become more elaborate and gold leaf and hand painting are possibilities. Silk and rayon brocades and jacquards in appropriate patterns are also nice for outer layers.

Silk Habotai: PureSilks, Dharma, Thai Silks, EZSilk, Indian Laces and Fabrics

Rayon Satin: Sartor’s Lyocell Satin, Dharma’s Satin Rayon, Mood’s Satin Rayon Selection, Pure Silks Satin Rayon

Summer Katabira

2-3 oz hemp, linen or ramie; if wearing without an undergarment or in a cold climate, bump up to 4-5 oz for modesty and comfort. Yellows and lighter indigos seem to be typical colors. Dye complexity varies from solid to simple shibori to complex shibori and stencil dyeing for upper classes.

Hemp: Dharma Hemp Midweight, Soft Lighter Hemp, Affordable Chinese Hemp, Hemp Fabric Lab

Ramie: Ebay Ramie, Sartor

Hakama, Hitatare, Kariginu & Suikan

I have not yet found any extant weights of hakama. If you’re wearing them for martial arts with impact, you’ll want heavyweight hemp or cotton, probably in a twill weave to make the gaps smaller, with an appropriate lightweight 2-3 oz hemp, linen or cotton lining if desired. This is practical advice from a fellow martial artist, not aimed at perfect recreation.

For everyone else, most of the fabric weights above apply, but you can increase the weight of the fabric for better longevity and modesty if desired. For example, 5-7 oz hemp is a very nice weight for bottom layers in general. Brocade was extremely common for upper class hakama and matching top layers. Keep in mind textured fabrics without a lining may chafe your thighs, and raw silks and brocades with raised detail may pill quickly on the seat and in between the thighs. I recommend wearing a layer in between your hakama and your body if you have any concerns about comfort – bike shorts, shitabakama, leggings, or modern japanese hakama underwear, will all work.

Hemp: Heavyweight Hemp, Tofu Skin Hemp
Rayon: Lyocell Twill, Tencel Twill

Weight of Fabric

When I talk about weight of the fabric, what I mean is the oz or gsm weight of the fabric, which is the measurement of how many grams or ounces the fabric weighs per square yard or meter. It’s important to understand that this is not really how fabrics were measured in period, but it is how fabrics are sold today.

I based my research on a series of weights of different surviving garments from the Muromachi and Momoyama Eras. Not many have weights available, but a few did, and I estimated their bolt size based on their dimensions and did basic arithmetic to arrive at their momme or gsm. The complete spreadsheet can be found here.

Unfortunately I do not have weights for earlier periods garments, so my advice is to use common sense and the data here to arrive at the right weight and textile for your era. The more layers you have, the thinner you need the silk to be. It’s not appropriate to make a juni-hitoe out of 30 momme dupioni silk for each layer, for example. Not only would the slubs be too informal, you would end up wearing so much silk you would get a neckache from the weight of it. This is how sumptuary laws are made – ladies passing out from too many layers of silk. Don’t be the inspiration for sumptuary laws.

Modern kimonos top out at about a kilo (2.2 lbs) of weight for the whole face bolt, and this is considered pretty heavy, and jubans at around half a kilo (1.1 lbs). Depending on how ripped you are, wearing any more than four or five pounds of fabric of silk draping from your shoulders might give you a head or neckache, so experiment with gradually making your garments heavier and adding layers if you want to go past that limit, or use support from belts and hakamas.

I also want to note that these are the weights of the linings and the face fabrics combined, with my best guess at the seam allowances. They’re approximate. To determine the weight of the fabric to order, you need to divide by two if you want the lining and the face to be equal weight. A 30 momme garment would be 15 momme face and 15 momme lining if you were self lining it. It will probably drape a little better at something like 16 momme face / 14 momme lining, or even an 18/12 or a 20/10 split.

This is complete conjecture, but if linings were reused face garments, I would expect them to be a probable face garment weight. An older kimono seamstress recalling garments from early in her work said that old kimono tended to have indistinguishable face and lining weights on the bolts, because silk was so precious. Of course she was talking about the Taisho era and not the Momoyama era, but it made me consider thinking about linings as redyed face fabric, or just reused face fabric.

Extant Kosode Weights

Garment	Weight (g)	Square Meters	Momme
伝上杉謙信所用小物 – 4	505	3.9	30
伝上杉謙信所用小物 – 5	545	3.9	32
伝上杉謙信所用小物 – 6	460	4.1	26
伝上杉謙信所用小物 – 7	535	4.1	30
伝上杉謙信所用小物 – 9	440	3.9	26
伝上杉謙信所用小物 – 10	300	3.8	18
Median	483	3.9	28

Extant Katabira Weights

Garment	Weight (g)	Square Meters	GSM
(1) 伝上杉森信所用黄地 小花模樣小紋桂子	400	3.7	108
(2)同 上浅葱椎子	367	3.9	87
(3)同 上同上	355	3.9	90
(4)同 上同 上 [編]	293	3.9	76
Median	361	3.9	89

Extant Doubuku Weights

Garment	Weight (g)	Square Meters	Momme
浅葱饺竹雀紋繡襟摺箔描絵胴服	440	3.7	28

Recommended Weights

From these tables, I can make the following recommendations for fabric weights of medieval garments:

Kosode & Dobuku

Silk: 18-8 momme face, 14-8 momme lining, not totaling above 32 momme when summed together
Tencel, Rayon, Lyocell: 2.4 – 1.0 oz face, 1.4-1.0 oz lining, not totaling above 4.3 oz when summed together.

Katabira

Hemp, Ramie, Linen: 3.3 -2.2 oz

Types of Fabric

In medieval period, the Japanese had domestic access to silk, ramie, hemp, and a variety of other bast fibers that are no longer produced from various domestic plants. They also produced a small amount of cotton, and imported it as well. The records we have for cotton show it being used as winter wear for military outfits. It may also have been used for aristocratic clothing, though this was atypical. Cotton was a textile with limited consumption by the upper samurai class.

In Okinawa, bashofu, made from banana leaves, was also available.

Finally, wool was imported in the late medieval era, often pre-dyed. There’s a stunning example of cochineal dyed wool being used for a doubuku. In particular, jinbaori and doubuku seem to use wool fabric. I haven’t seen any examples of wool kosode or hakama.

There are a lot of unique fabrics used for doubuku and jinbaori. If you have some strange fabric and you don’t know what to make with it, my recommendation is make a doubuku. Making your battle attire with exotic imported fabric was quite fashionable.

For simplicity’s sake, I’ll cover the most typical fibers – silk, ramie, and hemp, and I’ll touch briefly on cotton.

Silks

Silk was used by the “middle” and upper classes in Japan; it would have been unaffordable for low class laborers and peasants, excepting maybe a tsumugi noragi. Skilled tradespersons, refined craftspersons, merchants, samurais and courtiers all might wear silk.

Silk was worn year round, but light, gauze like silks were worn in the summer. The gauze like layers are very sheer, to the point of possibly being considered immodest in modern times.

If you are vegan, an active outdoor person, want to save money, or hate handsewing, consider rayon. It was made to mimic silk, and it’s very easy to care for. It is wonderfully cool in summer, and it can be stuffed with cotton for warmth in the winter, mimicking silk stuffed kosode. Rayon’s original process is so polluting it can’t be manufactured in the US, but lyocell and tencel offer significant improvements with closed loop process that is far superior in environmental impact.

Of course polyester makes a fine silk imitation, but I can’t recommend using plastics, which are a non-degradable pollutant that contaminate the water they are washed in, especially for an optional hobby pursuit. They also do not breathe and feel like wearing a trash bag; they’re cold in winter and hot in summer, and tend to retain odors. Sometimes they’re the only option for specific patterns of imitation brocade, but I almost always choose to do without unless I’m making something that won’t be washed, like an obi.

Now, let’s talk about specific types of silk.

平絹 ・Hiraginu/Heikan

A plain woven silk fabric with warp and weft threads of the same thickness. It is woven without twisting, so it has a soft texture. There are many variations of this silk, with different names, to indicate whether it is woven with raw silk or refined silk on the warp, its thickness, etc.

Habutai is a premodern variation of this silk. Habutai is woven by weaving two warps in each reed through moistened weft threads.

This silk was often used for various types of pattern dyeing, such as tsujigahana and shibori.

Senshoku Bunka reconstruction and examples.

Hiraginu Sources & Substitutes

Silk Habotai: PureSilks, Dharma, Thai Silks, EZSilk, Indian Laces and Fabrics

Rayon Satin: Sartor’s Lyocell Satin, Dharma’s Satin Rayon, Mood’s Satin Rayon Selection, Pure Silks Satin Rayon

練貫・Nerinuki

A plain woven silk fabric that uses raw silk in the warp and silk thread with the sericin removed in the weft. It isn’t produced much anymore, but it was used in many kosode in the medieval era. This silk was often used for various types of pattern dyeing, such as tsujigahana, shibori, and surihaku. It is a subtype of hiraginu.

Senshoku Bunka reconstructions and close-ups.

Try to avoid too many slubs, look for a texture in the plain weave reminiscent of the warp and the weft being different, shiny but not mirror shiny.

Nerinuki Substitutes

1. Silk Broadcloth: It can be too matte, but it often has an uneven texture especially when sourced from India. Dharma Trading, Itokri, Indian Laces, Thai Silks
2. Silk Habotai: Probably not the best choice, but a heavier weight of it may work alright. Sandwashed might be too matte.
3. Silk Charmeuse: It can be too shiny and regular, but it’s often very affordable. If you want to mimic the shine of nerinuki, this is an option.
4. Silk Crepe Back Satin: One of the easiest silks to find, which is why I have included it. Crepe is very late period, but crepe back satin is a different animal entirely. The ‘crepe’ back is hardly crepe at all, and it has a manufacturing variance to the point where either side could pose as nerinuki to some extent, though I would be inclined to pick the satin side.
5. Rayon Satin: Sartor’s Lyocell Satin, Dharma’s Satin Rayon, Mood’s Satin Rayon Selection, Pure Silks Satin Rayon

紬 ・ Tsumugi

One of the biggest myths about Japanese medieval clothing is that they never used raw silk and didn’t tolerate any imperfections in the silk. The truth is quite the opposite. While this is true for formal garments, we have extant examples of a raw silk kosode owned by Kenshin, and records of pongee (a similar korean textile) being imported for winter military wear. Additionally, some records state that raw silk has been used for field and farm work clothes since ancient times.

Tsumugi is not a type of weave so much as type of fiber. It is often plain woven, but there are waffle, striped, and ikat tsumugis in production today. In the mediveal period, the one extant example we have is a horizontal striped kosode.

If you have noil or dupioni, or shantung, which are probably the most common thrift store silk finds (they are popular curtain fabrics), tsumugi is the nearest neighbor fabric.

If you are portraying a lower class persona, then tsumugi is perfectly acceptable for your field clothes. If you are portraying an upper class persona, Tsumugi is a good choice for casual wear, but might be a little informal for court situations. Think sundress poplin vs evening gown or suit fabric.

Tsumugi Sources & Substitutes

Interestingly, there is a vegetarian source of raw silk where the silkworms are only semi-domesticated and allowed to fly free once they have broken their cocoons. This is called ahimsa tussah silk, and it is traditionally produced by tribal peoples in India. Note that ahimsa denotes the fact that the cocoons are broken, and tussah is the species of moth, so you need both, not just tussah, for the right match.

Of course, unscrupulous farmers can always smoke the moths out early and then they won’t be able to live a full life, but the proper process qualifies as vegetarian or vegan depending on your ideology. It also happens to have some perfect matches for our surviving extants, so this is my first recommendation.

Ahimsa Tussah Silks: Desi Crafts, HandySilks, Indian Laces and Fabric, PureSilks

In modern Japan, tsumugi bolts are often wider, so if your wrist to neck measurement allows you a bolt width of 16″, then you can purchase the real thing used. Try to look for plain colors or horizontal stripes. Some of the more elaborately patterned tsumugi is more difficult to document. These can be found on Rakuten, Mercari, and Yahoo Auctions.

If you’re looking for a plant fiber option, some linen and cotton chambrays, shots/slub/slabs will fit the bill, such as this one.

綸子・Rinzu

Rinzu is a single color pattern weave silk that is woven out of untwisted raw (unprocessed, sericin not removed) silk for both the warp and weft. Multiple strands of silk are used for both the warp and weft, though the number of strands varies.

Some earlier definitions of rinzu also include plain woven fabric, but it is not clear to me what particular part of the weaving process makes it rinzu if there is no pattern.

As you can see in the diagram, the pattern is simply made by skipping warp threads in the weft.

Senshoku Bunka’s page on Rinzu with closeups and reconstructed kosode.

Rinzu was used plain colored, but also for pattern dyeing. It takes a lot of skill to stencil dye with textured weaves, because the unevenness of the weave affects the resist application, but it is still done. It is often seen with shibori and tsujigahana patterns.

Until the Momoyama period, rinzu was imported from China. Then, domestic production began in Nishijin.

One of the big challenges of purchasing rinzu fabric is the most common pattern used in Japan today is called sayagata. It looks like this:

In Japan, this is a Buddhist symbol with positive religious connotations, and you will see it everywhere. It’s even used as the icon for Buddhist temples in Google Maps. However, in America, this symbol can be interpreted as a swastika with very negative connotations, and many re-enactment groups, including the SCA, heavily discourage it for costuming, and the SCA also does not allow it heraldry.

This is very tough for Japanese personas, because this pattern is ubiquitous in Japan and shows up everywhere, but most prominently in rinzu cloth, where it is easily over 90% of the available stock and many of the alternative patterns are very modern. Even my kimono sewing board, which I was not allowed to select the pattern for when I ordered it from Japan, has some small clouds filled with the sayagata pattern.

So, what to do? Firstly, it is always better to buy a slightly modern rinzu than it is to buy a sayagata rinzu. Secondly, a period behavior is to import rinzu from China, so if your rinzu looks a little Ming Dynasty, that is actually Just Fine!

Rinzu is such a specific silk that if you want to purchase it, you will probably need to buy from overseas directly, because the silk and rayon jacquards available in the US are mostly very western patterns or extremely marked up, like 10x. I have done my best to find affordable options, but they are mostly overseas, so that means that you will need to use a proxy service to purchase them, like Buyee for Japan or Parcelup/PandaBuy for China. Do not be intimidated; these services are designed to be easy for foreigners to use and the customer service is friendly.

Used rinzu bolts are also often available in used kimono markets, but they tend to be too narrow, especially because the plain ones are often for undergarments. It’s not enough material to make a kosode without piecework, but piecework is period.

Rinzu Sources & Substitutes

Direct Shipping To US

Poppy Lollipop – Mix of Silk and Synthetic Blends
CNElement – Mix of Silk and Synthetic Blends
Vietnamese Silks – Pure silk, but a lot of modern designs. The dragonflies and some of the geometrics are good.

Japan

Tokuan is the biggest manufacturer, unfortunately, most of it is polyester, but it does come in a wider width. It’s pretty expensive. Rakuten has other options. Check the size of the pattern before you order. Rinzu is a popular fabric for doll clothes, so many of the patterns have been scaled down from their medieval size.

China (Taobao)

These options will likely run out of stock eventually, just take them as examples if they are sold. out. The search term ‘silk jacquard’ (‘花真丝面料’ or ‘提花缎真丝’) will help you look for more.

Geometric, Lotus, Non-Swastika Sayagata Variant, Interlocking Circles, Pheonixes, Small Flowers, Vines

Stores

• 倚楼邀明月
• 金凤凰贸易布行
• 吴罗织造

Brocades

錦織・Nishikiori ＆ 西陣織・Nishijinori

Nishiki-ori is the general term for brocade in Japanese. It is so little used that if you search for it without specifying you are looking for the textile, you just get pictures of a famous tennis player. However, nishiki-ori refers to fabrics made with different color threads to create a raised pattern.

One of the things that is important to understand about Japanese textiles is that the Japanese don’t classify and sort textiles the way we do in English. It would be simplistic to say that nishiki-ori = brocade, and rinzu = damask, but there are all sorts of exceptions to this, like the fact that early rinzu could refer to plain weave.

A more common word for brocade is Nishijin-ori, which just means “weaving from Nishijin”. Nishijin is the current center of brocade production in Japan, where it was established after the end of the Ōnin War (1467–1477).

Currently, Tatsumura is the leading producer of Nishijin-ori. They actually made reproductions of Nara brocades as well as creative modern designs. To purchase textiles instead of ready made items, you will need to directly contact them. However, understand that they charge prices commiserate with their skill and effort as expert artists and weavers that routinely make textiles for museums and exhibitions. As an alternative, sometimes you can find used Tatsumura obi on Japanese secondhand markets like mercari and yahoo very reasonably. Searching for ‘西陣織’ will also give promising results.

金襴・Kinran

Kinran refers specifically to brocade patterns made with gold thread. It was brought over to Japan during the Song Dynasty by monks, and came to be used for items such as bags and scroll mountings. Records of production in Japan date back to 1567 domestically. Silk and cotton were both used, as well as a variety of weaving techniques, twill and plain.

唐織・Karaori

Karaori uses an old word for China to simply mean “Chinese weaving”. The same kanji is used to denote other things imported from China, such as karakusa – an arabesque pattern, which,　　ironically, came to Japan through China from Greece, and karabitsu -a type of footed chest. Karaori is sometimes also used to refer specifically to the sort of floating twill weave that is used in yusoku (有職) textiles, commonly seen in Heian courtwear.

This is a silk fabric that uses a 3×1 twill structure (triple weft threads) with raw silk in the warp for the base cloth. The decorative weft threads float between these threads to create patterns that are raised, giving them the appearance of embroidery. This sort of triple twill is also sometimes called fusen ryo (浮線), especially when it features a roundel pattern.

I am often asked where one can obtain Heian court textiles specifically for garments like juni-hitoe. The answer is, unfortunately, not simple. It is actually quite easy to obtain the fabric on a smaller scale for dolls, but there’s almost no large scale commercially available beyond what Tokuan offers in basic rinzu. It seems the costume shops that make Heian attire have private relationships with the weavers, and they are probably often choosing synthetics (because it is more practical for their needs). If you are willing to pay custom order prices, it’s probably worth contacting one of the following stores about your needs: Kyoto Shioya, Shouzukuten. You might also consider ordering custom digitally printed silk with the patterns. It will look close and be considerably more affordable.

For later period personas or for people who don’t have several thousand to spend on fabric, there are a lot of nice silk brocades that fit the bill. One thing I want to caution is to stay away from modern cheongsam style brocades that look like they might be medieval Japanese style, but are very modern (and often Chinese). Here are some examples:

Try to spend some time looking at period brocades in museums and online before making an expensive purchase. There are quite a range of options, and it’s a period behavior to use Chinese patterns as well, just like with rinzu.

Brocade Shopping & Substitutes

It’s very difficult to find affordable pure silk brocade in period styles. It does exist, but most commercially available silks are rayon or polyester blends. Check fiber content diligently if you need pure silk, and don’t be fooled by terms like ‘art silk’.

Direct Shipping To US

Poppy Lollipop – Mix of Silk and Synthetic Blends
Forest Fabrics – Mix of Silk and Synthetic Blends
Indian Laces and Silks – Mostly Indian designs, but some of the geometrics are really good matches. Indian textiles were sometimes imported, but be judicious with your pattern choices.

Japan

Aside from Tatsumura, discussed above, Tokuan is the biggest manufacturer, unfortunately, most of it is polyester, but it does come in a wider width. I linked to the ‘festival cloth’ section, which will be scaled for costumes, but there is a seperate kinran section and a pure silk section – it’s pretty expensive. Rakuten has other options. Check the size of the pattern before you order. Brocade is a popular fabric for doll clothes, so many of the patterns have been scaled down from their medieval size.

China (TaoBaO)

China is a really excellent option because of how much pure silk is available at very reasonable prices in comparison to Japan and India. The patterns are also often historical matches or very close. This search should also help.

• 吴罗织造
• 金凤凰贸易布行
• 喜布坊

Thin and Sheer Silks

Japanese summer gauze silks are collectively called からみ織 or karamiori. There are three common types – sha, ro, and ra. They are used for summer wear.

紗・ Sha

Sha is the simplest of the three light weaves. Its name literally translates to “gauze” It is a thin silk fabric that creates a gap by intertwining two adjacent warp threads with one weft thread, alternating the left and right threads. It’s important to note that sha can be patterned, but it’s patterned like a gauze, not like a net (that’s ra), and the distinction of striped sha is ro, discussed below. You can view closeups from Senshoku Bunka. It is very hard to find surviving sha extants, so please take a look at the modern examples.

SHA Shopping & Substitutes

Direct US Shipping Options

I hesitate to recommend fabrics like organza and chiffon, because despite being thin, they have a very tight weave, and so I don’t believe they will really be as cooling in summer as true sha. However, they are a very affordable substitute, and widely available. Just be aware that it may not be as cooling as the real thing. Organza will be stiffer, and chiffon will be drapier. Choose the right fabric for the garment you are making. If you are wanting something vegan, try for a very low gsm bast fiber or cotton voile, or rayon organza or gauze.

Organza: Mood, Pure Silks, Dharma
Chiffon: Dharma, Mood, Pure Silks
Vegan: Lyocell Lawn, Rayon Organza, Rayon Chiffon, Rayon Voile,

Occasionally you will luck out and find a nice jacquard organza, but the prices are usually not affordable, to the point where ordering from Japan looks economical. There are some etsy sellers selling Chinese sha that have very period fabrics. These are often clones of taobao stores, so you’ll pay a premium for the convenience of etsy.

Japan

It’s actually not too hard to buy real sha overseas, it’s just not imported at all do to low demand. Once again, you will need to use a proxy service like Buyee for Japan or PandaBuy/Parcelup for China.

Again, Tokuan has a good selection of wider widths, but they’re mostly polyester unless you click in the ‘pure silk’ section, where there are a few. You can shop rakuten for bolts as well as yahoo auctions and mercari for deals on used bolts. Please be mindful of bolt widths for your garb and select appropriately.

China (Taobao)

The real deals, however, are on taobao, and there are quite a lot of them. Below are some stores that have good stock with period patterns, and then also this search and this search are helpful for finding more.

• SLSilk
• 平乐照清
• mopao001

絽・ Ro

Ro uses a weaving technique similar to sha, only it leaves gaps inbetween multiple threads to create a striped effect. Ro can be a horizontal or vertical pattern. Horizontal patterns were very popular in the Muromachi era, but ironically, the only surviving ro garment I can find uses a vertical pattern!

Both vertical and horizontal ro are available today commercially in japan for summer kimono. It’s quite popular.

Ro Shopping & Substitutes

Direct US Shipping Options

Ro is such a specific weave that it’s very hard to find in the west. I once found clearance designer shirt fabric at FabricMart that happened to be ro, but that’s not a reliable occurrence. Searching for ‘striped silk organza’ will get you things that look like ro, but they won’t have the same gauzy characteristics as ro, so you probably still overheat in them if you wear them in high summer.

If you are looking for vegan options, try searching for ‘striped linen gauze’ or ‘striped cotton voile’ will yield some results, as well ‘striped cotton dobby’.

Japan

The shopping situation for ro is a little bit more difficult than sha, because it’s only really sold as kimono bolts in Japan. Tokuan doesn’t carry anything. So, again, you can shop rakuten for bolts as well as yahoo auctions and mercari for deals on used and new bolts. Please be mindful of bolt widths for your garb and select appropriately.

China

China has a similar fabric to ro, which is actually what looks like a ra that is striped. I’ve found it for sale both on taobao and aliexpress from the same vendor. The nice thing about it is that it appears to have airgaps, which will make it cooling, and that it comes in 70 cm widths, which means it can be used for most people’s yuki without piecing. You can use the leftover edge for your okumi and collar :).

• mopao001
• aliexpress

羅・Ra

Ra is an open weave textile with a net-like appearance. It is woven using raw silk or half-raw silk, which is silk with about half its sericin removed. Each warp thread is intertwined with its adjacent warp threads, creating a net-like appearance.  It originated in China and was introduced to Japan around the first half of the 4th century. Production began in Japan during the Asuka period. Its production began to decline during the Kamakura period, and stopped during the Muromachi period. Sha and ro, introduced from the Ming Dynasty, replaced it.

Ra is a very labor intensive fiber to produce, though it seems there must be some modern innovation because there is a Chinese weaver making it at industrial scale.

There are some nice ra garments on the senshoku bunka website.

There are a few people in Japan who keep alive the tradition of ra weaving. Takeshi Kitamura revived the practice, and has passed it down to others. You can read about their stories here and here. Here is a video of ra being woven on a modern loom.

Ra Shopping

There isn’t really a substitute for ra, and it’s almost nonexistent in the modern west. So, there are two options for purchase: buy a kimono bolt for thousands of dollars from one of the surviving Japanese weavers, or buy from a chinese supplier where it is about $50/meter.

The Japanese weavers are weaving at standard kimono bolt widths, so please keep that in mind. Even used, the bolts might be very expensive.

Japan

With all of these stores, please check the textile. Sometime sha or ro is listed as ra incorrectly. Look at the product photo carefully.

• mercari
• rakuten
• yahoo

ChinA

The one chinese supplier I could find is here. In mainland chinese, ra is written with the simplied character ‘罗’ (luó). Look for fabrics with the character 罗.

麻・Asa ・Bast Fibers

Hemp was the most common plant fiber worn by the Japanese, followed by ramie, which is made from the nettle plant. Both fibers were used by both upper and lower classes during the summer, and by the lower classes through all seasons. Because hemp is not very warm, hemp kosode worn through the winter were stuffed with silk if it was available, to add insulation.

Hemp was also beloved by the samurai class for under armor, bathing and activewear, and was frequently stencil dyed in later periods with crests or small patterns.

There are a number of other bast fibers lost to time, made from more esoteric plants such as wisteria fiber. However, linen was not available in this period for Japan. It is a very similar fiber to hemp in both feeling and texture, so if you don’t have any hemp or ramie available, linen is an okay substitute. It is a little less durable and it wears little differently, with minor texture differences. I personally find high quality hemp feels crisper and wears a bit softer than high quality linen, probably due to the fact that hemp can have a much longer staple length. Here is an article explaining their differences.

Bast Fiber Shopping

My page on fabric shopping covers this topic exhaustively, so I’m just going to link my top favorites. I’m a dyer so I buy white fabric, but many of these stores stock nice colors as well, just click around for those options.

Undergarments, Sheers, Summer Katabira: Lightweight Ramie, A little Bit Heavier Ramie, 2.8 oz Hemp, 120 GSM Hemp, 80 Lea Hemp

Midweights/All Season Kosode: Dharma Hemp Midweight, Soft Lighter Hemp, Affordable Chinese Hemp

Bottom Weights: Heavyweight Hemp, Tofu Skin Hemp

Sartor often has a fine selection of ramie fabrics, as does Aliexpress.

綿・Men・Cotton

One of the great frustrations of historical costuming is that the most abundant natural fiber available to most of us – cotton – was not a typical fiber of the period for most garments. However, that is not to say that it was not ever used in period, or that you should not use it.

We began to see surviving cotton garments fairly late in period; later 1500s and Momoyama Era, to be specific. Most of what survives is being used for military applications – jinbaori, haori, dobuku, and then one cotton katabira, which is here.

Interesting thing to note about this katabira: it is sewn selvage to selvage and the cotton is narrow, and so the sleeve ratio is closer to hemp katabira of the time rather than silk kosode. This means, for me, if I chose to make a cotton robe (which I did do!), I would probably choose to sew it based on the katabira layout rather than the kosode layout, unless I was using cotton to mimic silk. For details on this garment, there is a whole paper with its cutting layout.

Cotton usage in Japan was not widespread until the Edo Period. Cultivation began in the 16th century, and large quantities of seeds were brought over in the 1590s. Production began to accelarate, and in the early Edo period sumptuary laws were passed limiting peasants to cotton, bast fibers, and pongee for their clothing. The cotton cloth that survives from before the Edo period was imported from India, Korea, and China in addition to the limited domestic production. There exist records of requests for cotton cloth and pongee from Japan to Korea to for winter military clothing.

Additionally, China produces a silk-cotton blend cloth called oudon (黄緞). This cloth uses silk for the warp and cotton for the weft. It was imported and used for theatre costumes. It was treated the same way as gold and silver brocades, which speaks to its rarity.

So, what garments can you make out of cotton? If you want to be faithful to the fiber usage of the time, use them for jackets, vests and fighting gear. Cotton dobby is the closest match to the striped fabric of the surviving kosode, but you may have to turn the fabric sideways to get it horizontal. Most of the dobby produced now is vertical. However, given that ro comes in vertical and horizontal stripes in period, vertical may have been produced as well; there simply aren’t enough examples to say.

Cotton chintzes from India were also imported, although they would have been a costly treasure. Ensure you’re purchasing historical Indian designs – scattered paisley is a modern pattern, for example.

Finally, silk cotton is a really wonderful textile. Although it was very rare in period, it drapes extraordinarily well, and it’s fantastic for people with skin sensitivity or just summer wear in general. It’s still produced in China, and it’s very easy to find on etsy, aliexpress and taobao, as well as American stores like Mood. Sometimes it is textured and looks like hemp, but even the smooth variety I recommend for linings and underlayers, as well as a general purpose affordable substitute for some of the plain weave silks.

綾織り・Aya・Twill

Twill isn’t a type of fiber so much as a type of weave, so I’m only adding this in here to say, if you did find twill fabric, then yes, that technology existed in period and was used. It’s hard to beat twill for durability and for combat garments because of its toughness and resistant to puncture. If you’re looking for a blessing from someone on making your fencing hakama out of hemp twill, it’s right here.

Final Thoughts

The most important thing in textile selection, more than historical accuracy, is firstly, your comfort, and secondly, your budget. Never buy a fabric you find uncomfortable, and never buy a fabric you can’t afford, no matter how beautiful it is. Remember: the best clothes feel like wearing nothing but a pleasant sensation.

For your first few pieces, select affordable fabrics you don’t mind making mistakes on, are easy to sew, and not a big deal if you ruin. Once you have enough clothes for events, then I advise saving up for quality fabrics that last. This does not mean spending a lot of money, but it does mean waiting patiently for the right fabric to come along, or saving money so that you can spend a little bit more if you need something before a special occasion.

Many re-enactors end up with boxes and boxes of fabric that they will never get around to sewing, and that is perfectly fine. It provides a stash that friends and last minute events can draw from. However, it is much more efficient to simply save the money and buy what you need, when you need it. Do not feel pressured into a purchase you do not need, and do not feel pressured into a purchase you cannot afford because “it’s on sale” or “it’s one of a kind”. If it’s not an enthusiastic yes!, it’s a no.

Bibliography

Almost all of my resources are linked inline, but I used the resources at kotobank and senshoku bunka extensively.

• https://senshokubunka-kyoto.jp/gijyutu/nerinuki.html
• https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%94%90%E7%B9%94-47037
• https://kotobank.jp/word/%E7%BE%85-146657
• https://kuryu-sanko-do.com/nishiki/
• https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%B4%AC
• https://kotobank.jp/word/%E7%B6%B8%E5%AD%90-150390
• https://costume.iz2.or.jp/color/491.html
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nishijin-ori
• https://kotobank.jp/word/%E9%87%91%E8%A5%B4-54555#E6.94.B9.E8.A8.82.E6.96.B0.E7.89.88.E3.80.80.E4.B8.96.E7.95.8C.E5.A4.A7.E7.99.BE.E7.A7.91.E4.BA.8B.E5.85.B8
• https://hirotatsumugi.jp/blog/2667/%20
• https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%94%90%E7%B9%94-47037
• https://kotobank.jp/word/%E7%BE%85-146657
• https://kuryu-sanko-do.com/nishiki/
• https://kyoritsu.repo.nii.ac.jp/records/3611