<Factory tour> Nishiwaki City, Hyogo Prefecture / Toban Dyeing Co., Ltd.

Hello!

It's the usual person in the photo 🐈

I went to Kansai last week.

We took a bus from Kobe Sannomiya early in the morning and traveled for 2 hours and 20 minutes.

(There are apparently faster buses. It takes about 90 minutes by regular car.)

A hot spot in the area recently! We visited Nishiwaki City, Hyogo Prefecture, the center of Japan.

(The author is originally from Hyogo Prefecture and once lived in the Toharu area, so this blog is heavily biased towards the local area.)

Nishiwaki City is located in the central-eastern part of Hyogo Prefecture, and is famous as the birthplace of Banshu-ori textiles, which have a history of over 200 years, due to the fact that it has the water resources necessary for dyeing, including the three rivers Kakogawa, Sugihara-gawa, and Noma-gawa.In addition, the city is located at the center of the Japanese archipelago, with the 135th meridian east and the 35th parallel north intersecting, and is therefore promoting itself as the "navel of Japan."

There are many belly buttons in Japan, but Nishiwaki is definitely the favorite!

Well, we visited Toban Dyeing Co., Ltd., a company that represents Nishiwaki City, and had the opportunity to tour the factory. Toban Dyeing Co., Ltd. website is here

I knew that Nishiwaki City was famous for Banshu-ori, but since I only had experience with knitwear during my time in the apparel industry, this was my first time to visit a fabric factory. (Kuma came along with me.)

Anyway, the factory is huge.

(The picture doesn't convey the spaciousness...but it is really spacious.)

The size of the factory and the process of turning the yarn into fabric in one go are amazing.

When dyeing threads or fabric in original colors, we hand over the color to be dyed, called a "beaker," and then test dye a small cut piece of thread to check if the color is OK. I was able to see that process, too.

(*Apparently, it's called a beaker because it's used in dyeing beakers, which are test containers used in experiments. I don't know for sure though...)

A row of winders. You can wind it all at once.

When cheese dyeing, care must be taken with the tension applied when wrapping to avoid uneven coloring on the inside and outside.

I often heard that if you have 1000m of fabric, it's cost effective, but the beam dyeing that can dye 600 cones at once was overwhelming. It's quick to make all at once. I see! There were a lot of things that made me think, "I see!"

I learned a lot from observing the weaving process, the process of burning off the fuzz, the raising, the finishing process, and the piece-dyeing process.

Thank you to everyone at the factory, Nishiwaki City, and Hyogo Prefecture!

We are currently preparing a project with Toban Dyeing Co., Ltd. We will show it to you as soon as it is ready. Please look forward to it!

Anyway, I want to say out loud that Hyogo Prefecture is amazing.

And I want to spread the deliciousness of Banshu Ramen to the world!

Hyogo Prefecture is a great place, so I recommend everyone to go and check it out.

See you soon!