The five-day Oigawa Kuzufu workshop now enters its second half. In my recent post “The Ōigawa Once Said to Be Impossible to Cross — Oigawa Kuzufu”, I wrote about gathering kuzu on the Ōigawa riverbed, boiling it in a large pot, rinsing it in water, and placing it in a muro chamber to ferment. This time, I continue from there: taking the kuzu out of the muro, washing out the fibers, joining them by hand into yarn, and finally weaving cloth with my own hands.
A plant called kuzu becomes fiber, then yarn, and finally a piece of cloth. This was the stage of the Oigawa Kuzufu workshop that I had been looking forward to most.
Taking the Kuzu Out of the Muro
First, we take the kuzu that has been fermenting in the muro chamber and carry it to a nearby stream. While washing it in the flowing water, we remove the unwanted material little by little until the fibers begin to emerge.
▼ Taking the kuzu out after it fermented in the muro.
▼ Off to the stream to wash the kuzu. A refreshing place surrounded by greenery.
Oigawa Kuzufu — Extracting Fiber from Kuzu
And here are the kuzu fibers we extracted. As they sway in the clear stream, they sparkle when the light catches them. Such fine, beautiful fibers appearing from inside those thick kuzu vines—it still feels mysterious when you are doing the work with your own hands.
▼ Kuzu fibers washed out in the stream. They shine beautifully in the water!
Joining Kuzu Fibers into Yarn
The extracted fibers are dried and then joined by hand to make one long strand of yarn. In this process, short plant fibers are connected one after another. Because natural fibers are never perfectly uniform in thickness or length, we look at each one and join them little by little. Working fiber by fiber, of course, takes time.
For more about the workshop I joined, please also take a look at this page from Oigawa Kuzufu.
▼ A “tsuguri,” a bundle of joined kuzu yarn. Only now is it finally ready to become weaving yarn.
From Kuzu Yarn to a Piece of Cloth
We place the finished kuzu yarn in a special shuttle and finally begin weaving. We started by gathering kuzu, then boiled it, fermented it, washed it, extracted the fibers, and joined them into yarn. Now that yarn is being woven. Having followed every step with my own hands, watching the material slowly become cloth on the loom is deeply moving.
▼ The joined kuzu yarn is placed in the shuttle and woven little by little.
And at last, here is the finished kuzufu cloth.
▼ Kuzufu woven over five days. This time I made a small mat for a flower vase.
▼ A close-up of the kuzufu. The distinctive character of kuzu fiber appears directly in the cloth.
Five Full Days for One Piece of Cloth
Written out like this, the process sounds quick. But reaching this point took five full days. Even a single small vase mat requires this many stages. After experiencing the entire process myself, I understood all over again just how much time and work goes into making kuzufu.
The workshop taught us not only how kuzufu is made, but also its history and the natural-fiber cloths found in Japan, all in great detail. Best of all, I became good friends with everyone taking part, and both during work and breaks we were caught in “waves of laughter” 🤣 every single day. Working outdoors in the lingering summer heat alongside younger people was admittedly hard on my aging body 😅, but it was still an incredibly rewarding five days.
Starting with gathering the plant and ending by weaving a piece of cloth with my own hands. Even though I work with plant fibers regularly, what I was taught on site this time—and what I understood only by actually doing the work myself—was a major gain.
One Last Solo “Well Done” Night!
To tell myself “You did well!”, I went back to that same izakaya on the final night. Of course, it was time for another “solo well-done party” 🍺😁
▼ Five days of hard work! One last solo well-done party at the same izakaya.
And with that, my Oigawa Kuzufu journey came to an end. Learning. Taking on challenges. And moving forward, little by little. These five days reminded me again how important those simple things are, even though they are so easy to forget.
Experiencing the entire process at Oigawa Kuzufu—from gathering kuzu to weaving a piece of cloth with my own hands—became an important experience for thinking about Hitotsuya’s future yarn-making and cloth-making. To the teachers who guided me, and to all my “classmates” who learned alongside me this time, thank you very much!