Challenges Surrounding the Survival of the Nishijin Silk Weaving Industry in Kyoto, Japan

Abstract

Kyoto, Japan’s capital for more than a millennium, has developed many handicraft industries catering to the increasingly sophisticated demands of the Imperial court, the aristocracy and prosperous townspeople. The hand-woven silk produced in the Nishijin area in the north of Kyoto city is one of the most renowned of these. For the past few decades, however, this age-old craft industry has been facing an unprecedented crisis as a result of continual economic recession, overall changes in lifestyle and the difficulties of securing successors to carry on the craft. This paper will examine the historical background of the development of the specific mode of production and trade in Nishijin textiles; it will then analyse the nature of the crisis and describe various efforts to maintain and revitalise the heritage in the face of stringent economic circumstances. What the present study ultimately aims to do is to reconsider possible ways of preserving handicraft traditions in the modern world and to explore their cultural meanings.