Makita Shoten: Woven Umbrellas from Yamanashi
In Minamitsuru, Yamanashi, Makita Shoten uses weaving skills handed down since the Edo period to make umbrellas. We spoke with Mr. Kurihara about the company's history, its craft and the care it puts into every umbrella.
The Gunnai weaving region
The Gunnai area of Yamanashi is famous for textiles, especially kaiki, a silk woven from yarn dyed before weaving. Makita Shoten was founded in 1866. Heavy rice bales were hard to carry out of this mountainous land, so light, valuable silk was paid as tax instead, and Yamanashi silk became known nationwide. When sumptuary laws banned showy clothing, Edo townspeople hid patterns inside their coats, and kaiki linings boomed.
From fabric to umbrellas
"Makita Shoten was originally a fabric company," Mr. Kurihara explains. As polyester shrank the silk industry, Gunnai's weavers each specialized: ties, stoles, and for Makita, umbrella fabric, supplied for 50 to 60 years to major umbrella makers. About 20 years before our visit, as department store umbrella sales fell, the company began designing, weaving and assembling its own umbrellas, drawing on know-how from occasionally delivering finished umbrellas. Because it still supplies big makers, it sells through select shops, pop-ups and craft fairs rather than department stores.
Dyed, woven and assembled in one place
"Other companies make umbrellas from woven fabric, but I think we're the only one in Japan that dyes the yarn, weaves the fabric and assembles the umbrella." The large looms can weave big jacquard patterns, and must be kept at a steady, slightly warm temperature and humidity year-round. Patterns emerge as warp threads are raised or lowered over the weft, creating subtle gradations. The fabric shimmers as the light changes, and becomes even more lustrous after waterproofing.
A region of specialists
Many hands are involved: one workshop twists and skeins the yarn, another dyes it, another lines up more than 12,000 warp threads. "If any one company closes, we can't continue. Each has its own successor problem." Some steps are done by home workers, many of them elderly. The same umbrellas could not be made anywhere without this network.
Patterns were once read from punched cards; Makita now uses digital data. Its looms, built for umbrellas, can weave long pattern repeats, even designs spanning adjacent panels, and weave two panels side by side across 140 cm to reduce waste.
Cutting and inspection
The finished cloth is inspected 50 meters at a time, then cut into triangular panels with wooden templates and special knives; most umbrellas take eight panels, and every frame shape needs its own template. Each panel is checked again with light shining through. "People look at the outside when they buy, but they see the inside when they use it. We make sure there are no flaws you'd only notice with the sun shining through."
Panels with tiny flaws on the inside became eco bags and bag covers. Waterproof and unbothered by small flaws, they sold so well that they are now made from new fabric too.
Stitching and assembly
Panels are joined on a special machine with no bobbin thread, so seams stretch and the canopy opens taut and smooth. Local home workers then stitch the canopy to the frame, and every umbrella is inspected, ironed and fitted with its handle just before shipping. "It's an umbrella the whole community makes together."
Repairs for life
Makita Shoten repairs every umbrella it sells, from broken ribs to torn panels, which it can replace because it makes the fabric itself. "Repairs can be a lot of work, but we only charge for labor. If someone loved it enough to buy it, we want to stay with them."
Growing together with the region
"Weavers here get along really well. Elsewhere, people in the same trade are rivals." Because each company specializes, they even refer customers to each other. "This is a declining industry, so we help each other and try to liven it up together." Our thanks to Mr. Makita, Mr. Kurihara and everyone at Makita Shoten.
