From reeling off silk thread from cocoons or stripping fibers from grasses and trees through sewing and storing the finished costumes, the numerous processes that go into creating a nō or kyōgen costume are highly skilled and time-consuming. As outlined in the “Noh Costume Types” the fabrics can be divided into ones with woven patterning and ones where the design is added to the woven cloth by embroidery, stenciled gold leaf, or paste-resist dyeing. They can also be categorized by material: silk or bast fiber (hemp or ramie) and by weave structures: plain weave, patterned twill, patterned satin, and gauze weave (involving crossed warps) with patterning. What follows is a short overview of steps in weaving a karaori. Photographs in this section are all from the Sasaki Noh Costume Studio 株式会社佐々木能衣装.
In this section
Designing the costume
Karaori are woven with a foundation twill with many colored glossy weft threads creating a repeat pattern. Sometimes they also have a gold background pattern. The twill foundation is either one color or blocks of different color that are dyed in the thread. When the warps are set on the loom they must be aligned so each color area remains clear.
Drawings like this are used to calculate the pattern set-up. At Sasaki’s they use punch cards with a Jacquard mechanism to control the lifting (opening the shed) of the pattern threads. The punch card maker follows the graph line by line punching a hole for each set of threads to lifted shed by shed. Later the weaver will use the same graph as a guide for placing in the colored wefts, but will vary the color distribution with each pattern repeat.
Warping
Measuring the warps
To measure the warps the skeins of threads are wound onto large spools. In the photograph the warper is picking up sixteen warps at a time and then passing them around pegs back and forth across the warping board. This measures each thread to the desired length. At the beginning of each cycle she crosses the threads alternately to the right and left of pegs, this keeps the threads in order. The cross will be preserved through the entire weaving process. When all the warps are measured, she divides them into groups and then collects them in a loose chain.
Winding the warps on the warp beam
The warp beam holds the warps at the back of the loom. The measured warp threads are wound onto the warp beam before placing it on the loom. When warping the beam the threads are spread evenly across the beam to the width of the fabric to be woven and wound onto the warp beam so each thread is at the same tension. To keep the thread layers separate, thick papers are placed between them.
Dressing the loom
The warp beam can now be placed on the loom. Each of the warp threads must be fed through the various heddles that will be used to pull them up or down and through the reed in the beater. If the same set-up as the previous weaving (i.e. twill with patterning, or 5-harness satin with patterning) is used, the process can be simplified by tying the new threads to the corresponding threads from the previous warp, as seen here. Finally the warps are tied with even tension to the breast beam, where the weaver sits and weaves in the wefts.
Weaving in the wefts
The weaver works with the face of the fabric down. He can check the pattern with a mirror. Karaori have three types of wefts. The foundation wefts are unglossed (raw) silk generally of the same color as the warps. For each step in the weaving, the foundation warps are passed from selvage to selvage through a shed that has every third warp raised (2/1 twill). Then, numerous color pattern wefts of glossed silk wound on small shuttles are passed through the pattern shed in discrete areas. Pattern threads worked back an forth in each color area are known as supplementary discontinuous pattern wefts or broché. These pattern wefts float over a number of warp threads, thus creating a three-dimensional effect reminiscent of embroidery. Some karaori also have gold thread patterning as well. The gold thread is made by laminating thin gold foil onto a lacquered sheet of paper and then cutting the paper into strips. These strips are pulled through the shed with a hooked bamboo so that they do no twist, but have the paper on the reverse and on gold on the obverse of the fabric.
The weaving is done with with the back side of the fabric up. The different layers of a karaori design are created in succession. 1) Foundation: two red weft shots that go from selvage to selvage create the foundation twill. 2) Float pattern: colored threads on small shuttles are inserted only where the pattern demands. The shed is raised differently for each part of the pattern. 3) Gold thread is pulled from one selvage to the other using a hooked stick. The gold ‘thread’ is actually gold foil pasted onto handmade Japanese paper that is cut into thin strips. It has to be inserted flat and what is seen here are the white paper strips that back the threads.
Tailoring
When the fabric is finished, it is sized and checked for imperfections. Then it is cut into rectangles of different lengths for the body panels and sleeves, lapels and collar. The stitching is all hand done with large stitches and relatively heavy silk thread.
Nō costumes are stored flat. Before an ōkuchi is put on the actor, the center of the stiff back is pulled together into a pleat that will form a large bulge. Here the seamstress is making reinforcement stitches for the back pleat. Using thick, plied silk thread she stitched along the V-shaped tuck. First, she knots the previous stitch in place. Then she passes the needle and thread through to the back. The woven cloth is so sturdy that in order to pass the needle from reverse to obverse she has to puncture a hole with an awl.
Contributor: Monica Bethe