Challenges Surrounding the Survival of the Nishijin Silk Weaving Industry in Kyoto, Japan
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Kyoto, as the site of the capital in Japan for more than a millennium, has developed many handicraft industries catering for increasingly sophisticated demands of the Imperial court, the aristocrats and prosperous townspeople. The hand-woven silk produced in the Nishijin area at the northern part of Kyoto city is one of the most renowned of them. For the past few decades, however, this age-old craft industry has been facing unprecedented crisis as a result of continual economic recession, overall changes in lifestyle and the difficulties in securing successors in order to carry on the craftsmanship. This paper will examine the historical background of the development of the specific mode of production and trade of Nishijin textiles; it will then analyze the nature of the crisis and various efforts to maintain and revitalize the heritage in the face of stringent circumstances. What the present study ultimately aims for is to reconsider the possible ways of preserving handicraft tradition in the modern world and to explore its cultural meanings.
Abstract
Kyoto, as the site of the capital in Japan for more than a millennium, has developed many handicraft industries catering for increasingly sophisticated demands of the Imperial court, the aristocrats and prosperous townspeople. The hand-woven silk produced in the Nishijin area at the northern part of Kyoto city is one of the most renowned of them. For the past few decades, however, this age-old craft industry has been facing unprecedented crisis as a result of continual economic recession, overall changes in lifestyle and the difficulties in securing successors in order to carry on the craftsmanship. This paper will examine the historical background of the development of the specific mode of production and trade of Nishijin textiles; it will then analyze the nature of the crisis and various efforts to maintain and revitalize the heritage in the face of stringent circumstances. What the present study ultimately aims for is to reconsider the possible ways of preserving handicraft tradition in the modern world and to explore its cultural meanings.