In August 2025, I traveled with Hitotsuya staff member Bija to his home country, Nepal, and visited weaving workshops in different regions. I was captivated by the nostalgic machines I saw there and decided to have a wooden automatic loom made for Hitotsuya. This story began with the power looms we encountered in Nepal. Nearly six months have passed since I placed the order—.
※ For more details, please see my earlier blog post “In Search of a Power Loom”.
The development of loom technology from power looms to automatic looms is also introduced by the Toyota Commemorative Museum of Industry and Technology in “The Development of Loom Technology”.
▼ A weaving workshop in Bhaktapur, Nepal
The power loom finally arrives in Iga
And today, at last, the wooden automatic loom arrived from Nepal at Hitotsuya’s old folk house workshop in Iga, Mie Prefecture! Seeing the loom right in front of me, I finally feel that the plan that began in Nepal has become real.
Put into words, it is only one sentence. But standing in front of the real thing, the weight of the wooden crates and the thickness of the time behind them left me unable to move for a while. Honestly, I was overwhelmed with emotion—. I can only be grateful that I am still able to feel this way at my age.
▼ The wooden automatic loom that arrived from Nepal
The moment I saw the wooden crates being unloaded from the truck, it really hit me: “It actually made it here～”. The neatly packed crates were all simple, with no unnecessary decoration at all. Yet they quietly conveyed just how far and how long they had traveled from a distant country.
Once we lined them up inside the workshop, I was overwhelmed all over again by their quantity and presence. Each crate seemed to hold not only the weight of its contents, but also the work behind it, the hands of many people, and the many steps that had accumulated along the way. I simply cannot think of this as just “a machine delivery”.
A power loom weighing about 500 kg in total
About 500 kg in total—. We temporarily set the power loom down in the yard and took a break. Looking at it, I slowly came back to reality. From here there is installation, assembly, adjustment, understanding how it works, test runs⋯ there is a mountain of things to do. Honestly, for a brain already suffering from a bit of decision overload, it is quite a stimulating sight—😅
▼ About 500 kg in total. Temporarily set down in the yard
I went to Nepal with no connections and nowhere to turn for help, simply taking “a one-shot gamble”. When I wrote at the beginning of this blog that “I can only be grateful that I am able to feel this way”, I was not using a stock phrase.
Bringing in this power loom had originally felt like “trying to grasp a cloud”. I wrote those words because I am sincerely grateful that, with help from people in many different positions in both Japan and Nepal, we managed to come this far.
▼ From faraway Nepal to Hitotsuya’s old folk house workshop
This power loom is not only about production efficiency
The fact that it is here in front of me now can only be described as a “miracle”!
I did not arrange for this power loom simply to improve production efficiency. If I start getting passionate about that, this post will become long again 😅, so I will leave the details for another day.
Several wooden crates made it safely here from a far, faraway country—. For today, that alone is enough. The loom made it this far, and so did I! For now, I want to simply take in that fact as it is. I am truly overwhelmed with emotion. Really!
I have been incredibly busy lately, so it will probably be about a month before I can calmly begin assembling the loom. I do not want to make a mistake, so I will keep my excitement in check and use the time to prepare everything else.
Really! Please look forward to what comes next!!
※ Since then, restoration work on the power loom has also begun. Continue with “Bringing the Power Loom (Wooden Automatic Loom) Back to Life | A Wooden Machine from Nepal”.