Arimatsu Narumi Shibori Kaikan

Frommer's Review

During the days of the shogun, Arimatsu was a small village on the old Tokaido Highway. Its inhabitants made a living producing tie-dyed cotton cloth (shibori), which they then sold as towels to passing travelers. Today, Arimatsu is a suburb of Nagoya on its southeastern edge, yet it still retains its historic core, with several buildings remaining from the Edo Period and more than 2,500 people still involved in the cottage industry. This small museum pays tribute to the painstaking tie-dying process; more than 100 patterns are possible, with a single kimono requiring between 50,000 and 200,000 handmade stitches and taking 4 to 6 months to complete. A 15-minute film tells the history of Arimatsu tie-dying and the lengthy process involved in the craft: engraving a pattern, transferring the pattern to the cloth, tying the cloth, dying it, and then taking the stitches out. Several women are usually on hand practicing their trade; a small shop sells their wares.

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