In my previous blog post, “Turn Past Hesitation into Future Wisdom!”, I wrote that I felt as if I was standing just before a turning point. It was that strange feeling that comes before something big begins to move — exciting, a little frightening, and still difficult to put fully into words. But at that point, I had not yet written in detail about the reason.
This time, I traveled to Maebashi City in Gunma Prefecture. The purpose was to pick up a Japanese-made wooden automatic loom — a power loom — that had been used until around the middle of the Showa period.
Hitotsuya already has a wooden automatic loom imported from Nepal, but I had long been looking for a Japanese-made one. However, whenever I contacted factories and former textile production areas, the answers were always something like, “We had one until recently, but we broke it up,” or “We sold it overseas.”
But perhaps wishes do come true. Through an unexpected connection, I was offered a Japanese-made wooden automatic loom at an affordable price. That is why I went all the way to Maebashi City in Gunma Prefecture to pick it up.
▼ My travel companion for this trip. This was not sightseeing, but a work trip to bring home a kikai.
Since I was born and raised in Osaka, I have almost no sense of geography when it comes to the Kanto region――😅
Even when I heard the name “Maebashi,” I had no real sense of where it was on the map of Japan, or how far it was from Osaka. Which towns were nearby? What places would be along the way? Where could I stop? I gradually began to understand the area while looking at the map.
But that unfamiliarity also made this trip feel a little special.
On the way to Maebashi, while looking at the map and slowly learning how the regions of Kanto connect, I noticed that Tomioka Silk Mill, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, was located near Maebashi.
For anyone involved in dyeing and weaving, Tomioka Silk Mill is a place one would want to visit at least once. There was no way I could pass up that chance!
As I wrote in an earlier blog post, “Like the Industrial Revolution of the Meiji Period”, Hitotsuya’s goal is not to keep natural dyeing only as artwork or a hobby, but to develop it into cloth and products that can be used in daily life. For that reason, I have long been drawn to the kind of production found in Meiji-era manufacturing, where human hands and kikai worked together.
This trip was not only a journey to bring home a Japanese-made automatic loom. It was also a journey to once again confirm the outline of the kind of making that Hitotsuya is aiming for.
▼ From Kansai to Kanto. A view of Zenkojidaira from a service area along the way. Places I had only known on a map gradually began to feel like real distances.
That said, a work trip is still very real and practical.
While driving a long distance, I kept thinking about the kikai I was about to welcome, about the future of Hitotsuya, and about how far I would keep running from here⋯. I still do not know the answer myself, but I continue moving forward. Just like this trip――.
If I write it nicely, that is how it sounds. But in reality, there are many moments when enthusiasm alone is not enough――😅
▼ I have reached the age where enthusiasm alone is no longer enough. When I was younger, I never needed things like this⋯
When I arrived in Maebashi, I finally came face to face with the automatic loom! A Japanese-made, partly wooden automatic loom — the very thing I had dreamed of — was right in front of me. The wooden frame, metal parts, large wheel, shafts, rollers, and the dignity of long years of use――. Old kikai have a power that is different from modern machines.
Of course, it is not something that can be put into operation immediately. First, we need to check its condition, clean it, examine the parts, avoid forcing it to move, and carefully see where strain may be placed. Even so, I believe it will become something that greatly changes the future of Hitotsuya.
▼ The Japanese-made automatic loom we finally found. It is not a display piece, but a kikai that we hope will actually work at Hitotsuya.
And this trip does not end here! On the way back from Maebashi, I plan to stop by Tomioka Silk Mill, and in Nagoya, I also hope to visit the Toyota Commemorative Museum of Industry and Technology.
A place where silk thread was produced, kikai that weave cloth, and the flow of technology from textile machinery into industry――. This trip seems likely to become an important clue as I think about Hitotsuya’s future product making.