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Abstract
Among the strategies of post-consumer textile waste management, refashioning or the makeover of used clothes, is gaining attention as value added recycling. However, refashioning business is considered as being possible only on a small scale. This article presents a case of its mass scale operation and clarifies the factors that enabled it. From the 1920s to the 1960s, re-dyeing played an indispensable role in Kyoto maintaining its central position in dyed kimono production. This study clarifies how the coordinators of re-dyeing and makeover, the shikkai, established a MTO (make to order) network, forming direct and recurrent ties with customers nationwide.
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by the JSPS Grants in Aid (15H03233 and 15KK0059). I am grateful to Professor Keiko Suzuki, Dr Aya Ueda, Professor Mihoko Aoki and Dr. Masako Yamamoto and their colleagues from Art Research Centre, Ritsumeikan University, Professor Rie Mori, and those in a related project who provided insight and expertise that greatly assisted the research. I am also immensely grateful to Masako Kitaura of Senshū Sano Gofuku Kitaura, who connected me to the valuable artisanal skills and innovative endeavours in the field. My heartfelt gratitude to Mr. T.Hayashi at Shikkai Hayashi; Mr. T. Yoshida at the Kyoto Kimono Clinic; and Mr. Y.Ezoe, Mr. T.Mori at Chisō and Ms. Kato at the Institute of Chiso Arts and Culture (http://www.icac.or.jp) for sharing their expertise. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Professor Haneda Masashi at the University of Tokyo, who manages two research platforms that explore new approaches to Global History (http://coretocore.ioc.u-tokyo.ac.jp), for giving me generous and valuable opportunities to explore the field of second-hand clothing circulation in global perspective. I also thank my colleagues and advisors of the research project Linking Cloth-Clothing Globally (http://www.lccg.tokyo) for their overall support. Part of the initial paper was presented at the panel ‘Fashion and Technology: Consumers, Democritization of Luxury and New Technologies’, organized by Professor Emanuela Scarpellini of the University of Milan. I express my sincere gratitude to her, Professor Naoko Inoue at Josai University and the other participants at the panel for the early discussions. In addition, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Professor John Styles at the University of Hertfordshire and Professor Pierre Yves Donzé at the University of Osaka for their valuable comments in the later stages of my research; any errors remaining are my own. Finally, I would like to thank the anonymous reviewers and the editors Jennifer Le Zotte and Karen Tranberg Hansen for their comments and support.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes on contributor
Miki Sugiura is Professor of Global Economic History at Hosei University, and is currently visiting professor at University of Warwick, Centre for Global History and Culture (2018-19). Her main interest is the mechanisms for circulation and mobilization of goods and people in urban societies. Since 2014, she has focused on the circulation of cloth and clothing and is organising the research platform ‘Linking Cloth-Clothing Globally’ (http://www.lccg.tokyo). She is senior member of Global History Collaborative, organised by Professor Haneda Masashi at the University of Tokyo. Currently, she is preparing a book that considers second-hand clothing circulation from a global perspective.
Notes
1 Blackburn, Sustainable Apparel.
2 Stokes et al., Waste Business; Jones, Green Entrepreneurship.
3 Dssanayake and Sinha, “Sustainable Waste”, 80.
4 Ibid, 85-87.
5 Strasser, History of Trash, 28; Stöber, “Europe Repair Trade,” 147.
6 Oldenziel and Hard, Europe Consumers; Gerasimova and Chuikina, “Repair Society.”
7 Oldenziel and Hard, Europe Consumers; Gerasimova and Chuikina, “Repair Society;”: Twigger Holroyd, “Dress Leisure.”
8 Tranberg Hansen, Salaula.
9 Norris, “Indian Saris;” Norris, “Cloth Economies.”
10 Izushi, Yuzen Dyeing, 68.
11 Muneto and Kuromatsu, Modernization Yuzen, 124. Calculation and estimations are based on this
work.
12 Under MTO, production is triggered by a sales order. Under MTS, suppliers estimate the sales
and produce. In the clothing industry, the former is custom-made and the latter is ready-to-wear.
In the field of operational research, hybrid MTO and MTS production systems have been much
discussed since Williams, Special Products.
13 The origin of the dye coordinators could be traced to as early as the ninth century. For further historical development of the shikkai, see Takahashi, Secret Kyoto, 10 and Iwaki and Takatera, Origin Shikkai, 40.
14 For published articles and studies, see Izushi, Kyoto Yuzen; Izushi Yuzen Dyeing;
Izushi Kyoto Dye; Nakamura, “Japanese Textile;” and Nakamura, Dyed Kimono. See note 8 for the survey of investigation reports.
15 Iwaki, Shikkai Postwar and Iwaki and Takatera, Origin Shikkai.
16 Yamamoto, “Labour Division.”
17 Franck, “Kimono Fashion,” 33-34; Tamura, Socioeconomic History, 133-175. Franck’s
excellent study, which traced the changing consumption pattern of clothing between the 1880s
and 1990s, refers to the kimono’s long term usage and its ‘revamping’ by new collars and sleeve
cutting, but re-dyeing was not mentioned. Tamura’s book provides chapters on the innovations
introduced in chemical dyes or changing consumption patterns, but re-dyeing was not referred.
18 The details are described in note 8.
19 Takahashi, Secret Kyoto; Murakami, Modern Yuzen. Moreover, the paper also based its
analysis on guild publications, newspaper articles, and Kyoto Chamber of Commerce’s investigation report in Kyoto gofuku shikkai, Anniversary Pamphlet; Kyōto orimono oroshishō kyōkai, Kyoto Textile; Osaka asahi shinbunkyoku, “Shikkai Complaints.”
20 Each investigation yielded multiple reports and studies. The 1956 investigation is covered in Kyotoshi keizaikyoku, Kyoto Kimono; Izushi, Kyoto Yuzen; and Muneto and Kuromatsu. It is mentioned in Izushi, Kyoto Dye. The 1965 investigation led to Izushi, MTO Yuzen; Izushi, Kyoto Shikkai; Izushi, Yuzen Dyeing; it is also briefly mentioned in Izushi, Kyoto Dye. The results of the 1972 and 1982 investigations are in Doshisha University Institute, Japanese Textile Studies; Izushi and Omura, Kyoto Dyeing; Nakamura, “Japanese Textile.” In addition, Tanaka, “Kyoto Yuzen Decline” provides an overview of production since the 1970s.
21 Kyotoshi keizaikyoku, Kyoto Yuzen.
22 Tsushōsangyōshō senikyoku seniseihinka, Investigation report.
23 Kyotoshi keizaikyoku, Tokyo Shikkai.
24 Kyōzome oroshi shōgyōkumiai, Shikkai Merchandizing.
25 The width of dyed kimono fabric changed to 37cm after 1965.
26 Popularisation in this article is defined as the phenomena in Japan from the 1880s to the 1960s, wherein one woman owned multiple types of kimono. Franck, “Kimono Fashion,” and Tamura, Socioeconomic History, associated the phenomena more with the emergence of fashion. For Yūzen or other luxurious kimono, whose use was limited to the elites, popularisation means that they began to be produced in larger quantities and became incorporated as formal wear for middle class women. The structural changes that the Kyoto Yūzen industry went through since early modern era can be listed as follows:
Establishment of Kyoto dyed kimono as luxury item for the elite nationwide (1670-1800)
Popularisation phase, with the introduction of synthetic dyes, mechanisation, and new fibres (spun silk/cotton/wool) (1890s-1930s)
Wartime halt in production (1939-1945)
Post-war recovery, re-acceleration of popularisation and mass production (1950s-1970s)
Demand shrinkage and re-luxuriation after 1972
27 Doshisha University Institute, Japanese Textile Studies, 240-247; Muneto and Kuromatsu, Modernization Yuzen, 77-78; Kyotoshi keizaikyokyoku, Kyoto Shōkōjōhō, 46).
28 Izushi, Yuzen Dyeing, 68.
29 Nakamura, “Japanese Textile,” 311-335
30 Ibid., 364-392.
31 Tsushōsangyōshō senikyoku seniseihinka, Investigation Report, 19.
32 Nakamura, “Japanese Textile,” 357.
33 Omura, After Care, 30-33.
34 Franck, “Kimono Fashion,” 3; Tamura, Socioeconomic History, 16.
35 Kyoto Prefectural University Kyoto Memories.
36 They were used as gifts and dowry items. Interview with Mr. G. Hayashi, who was active as a shikkai from the 1960s inwards, on 16th January, 2018.
37 Kyotoshi keizaikyokyoku, Kyoto Yuzen, 50. Mr. G. Hayashi, mentioned in the previous note, confirmed the cost.
38 Kyotoshi keizaikyoku, Investigation Report, 55. The plain colour dye fee is an estimation.
39 Kyoto Prefectural University, Kyoto Memories.
40 Kyotoshi keizaikyoku, Kyoto Yuzen, 50.
41 Ibid., 55. Chemical coal tar dye was imported from 1870 onwards, and from 1871, the government research lab Seimikyoku in Kyoto supervised improvements in its application. Chemical dye was applied for Yūzen dye as early as 1874, first to wool and muslin, and then to silk crepe. Mixing chemical dye with the starch (Utsushizome) invented around 1879 enabled Yūzen to develop a simultaneous resist and dye processes for silk, radically shortening the production phase, and enabling mass production, besides allowing the inclusion of various colour nuances: Kyoto orimono oroshishō kyōkai, Kyoto Textile, 44-45.
42 Takahashi, Secret Kyoto, 101
43 Ibid., 108.
44 Osaka asahi shinbun kyoku, “Shikkai Complaints,” 247.
45 Iwaki and Takatera, Origin Shikkai, 43. They counted the numbers from Nihon yōzome gofuku senshoku gyōsha meikan (Lexicon of Kyoto dye products seller and dyers), published in 1926.
46 Osaka asahi shinbun kyoku, “Shikkai Complaints,” 248. They supervised 627 cases during 1923–25. In response, the shikkai guild associations stressed that they were contractors, operating under a fixed fee. Takahashi, Secret Kyoto also confirms that the Horikawa police branch in Kyoto received 90 complaints in a month. Takahashi, Secret Kyoto, 109-110.
47 Kyōzome oroshi shōgyōkumiai, Shikkai Merchandizing, 30.
48 Ibid., 21.
49 Izushi, Yuzen Dyeing, 68.
50 Kyōzome oroshi shōgyōkumiai, Shikkai Merchandizing, 30.
51 Ibid., 25
52 Kyoto orimono oroshishō kyōkai, Kyoto Textile, 53-56.
53 Muneto and Kuromatsu, 39-40; Kyoto orimono oroshishō kyōkai, Kyoto Textile, 57-70.
54 Izushi, Yuzen Dyeing, 74-75
55 For deregulation of silk, see Kyoto orimono oroshishō kyōkai, Kyoto Textile, 74-77. For re-dye rate, see Nakamura, “Japanese Textile,” 357; Iwaki, Shikkai Postwar, 639.
56 Muneto and Kuromatsu,123.
57 Izushi, Kyoto Dye, 66; Izushi, Kyoto Yuzen, 38.
58 Ibid., 120. According to Izushi, Kyoto Shikkai, 35, in 1966, the percentage of firms employing less than 10 and less than 5 was 77.6% and 48.6%, respectively.
59 The drop in the number of plain dye factories was remarkable, but the exact reason for the drop is unknown. For 1956, see Muneto and Kuromatsu, 120. For 1965, see Izushi, Yuzen Dyeing, 46.
60 Muneto and Kuromatsu, 127.
61 Izushi, Kyoto Shikkai, 43.
62 Muneto and Kuromatsu, 128.
63 Kyotoshi keizaikyoku, Investigation Report, 6 and 10-12.
64 Ibid., 7.
65 Ibid., 22-25
66 Izushi, Kyoto Dye, 64)
67 Franck, “Kimono Fashion,” 169-170.
68 Izushi, MTO Yuzen, 41.
69 Izushi, Yuzen Dyeing, 24-27; Nakamura, Dyed Kimono, 155-159
70 Izushi, Kyoto Dye, 47
71 Izushi, Studies Kyoto, 71. Indeed, 54.6% of Kyoto shikkai in 1965 joined some group. However, lack of flexibility in sharing individual networks is repeatedly pointed out; see Yamamoto, “Labour Division,” 35-40.
72 Izushi, Kyoto Shikkai, 50-51
73 Kyoto kōgei, Sōritsu 45, 1-15.
74 Dssanayake and Sinha, “Sustainable Waste”, 80.
75 Stokes, Waste Business, 301.