Marubeni | Important Cultural Property Conservation and Repair Project | #2

Preserving and Passing Down Japan’s Beauty

Marubeni is engaging in several initiatives to preserve traditional Japanese textiles in the Marubeni Collection so that they may be passed down to future generations. In the late 1920s to the 1930s, Marubeni assembled a collection of and conducted research into ancient textiles, primarily from the 17th to mid-19th centuries, and their traditional production techniques to inform the research and development of new textile products. Over 400 pieces of this collection of traditional textiles remain in the Marubeni Collection today. To continue to conserve these pieces, especially those in need of repair for future storage and exhibition, Marubeni is engaged in the projects.
Since April 2023, Marubeni has been engaged in a repair project of an early 18th-century kimono with the support and cooperation of the Japan Agency for Cultural Affairs, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, and Shokakudo Co., Ltd. The kimono, formally entitled Furisode (Garment with long hanging sleeves) with Design of Latticework, Chrysanthemums, Paste-resist (Yuzen) and Embroidery on Parti-colored Silk Crepe (Chirimen), is part of the Marubeni Collection and was designated as an Important Cultural Property by the Japanese national government in 2020. Once the two-year repair project is complete, Marubeni plans to exhibit the kimono to the public at the Marubeni Gallery.

◆Construction of Repair Materials
Replacement materials for the garment’s lining, which has been deteriorating, as well as the inner fabric needed to reinforce the garment, are then created anew. The construction of these fabrics is handled by Katsuyama Co., Ltd.’s Silk Production Research Center, the only workshop in the world that researches and produces silk fabrics using traditional Japanese methods that were once lost over the course of the country’s modernization in the late 19th century. The outer fabric of the furisode is a very thin crepe, the likes of which cannot be made today, and the inner fabric used to support it acts like an artificial joint, keeping the outer fabric moving smoothly. When creating the new inner fabric, the artisans must take care to make it neither too strong nor too weak, lest it cause stress that would lead to the deterioration of the original outer fabric. In order to produce the exquisite softness and suppleness the inner fabric requires, the entire fabric creation process is undertaken using methods similar to those used centuries ago. This includes everything from selecting silkworm varieties, raising the silkworms, and using those silkworms and the cocoons they make from mulberry, all the way through to the thread-making and sewing, which are done by hand.

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