JAPANESE

Introduction

Have you ever noticed that linen clothing seems to wear out faster than cotton? Cuffs fray quickly, and the fabric thins out sooner than expected. It can feel as though hemp fiber itself isn’t all that durable.

Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to see many old kogin kimono up close — to touch them, even to wear them. At facilities that offer such experiences, these garments have passed through countless hands, yet the kogin somehow remains unchanged, continuing to captivate visitors today. Their durability is nothing like what we associate with the linen we wear today.

Looking closely at the fibers of these old garments, I noticed something different from the hemp cloth we wear now — not just in thickness, but in the very feel of the thread. Could it be that “hemp” itself was different then? This question led me to explore the true nature of the hemp cloth used in kogin embroidery.

*In this article, “hemp” refers specifically to Cannabis sativa cultivated for fiber unless otherwise noted.

Chapter 1｜Basic Knowledge About Hemp Fiber

“Hemp” (asa in Japanese) is a general term for bast fibers taken from the inner bark of plant stems, or fibers extracted from leaves and stalks. In reality, it encompasses many different plants — cannabis (hemp), ramie (choma/karamushi), flax (the source of linen), jute, and others — each with distinct botanical characteristics and fiber properties.

1-1｜Japan’s Two Varieties: Cannabis and Ramie

The hemp used in Japan since ancient times was primarily of two types: cannabis hemp and ramie. Ramie was a high-quality fiber treated as a tribute good, and cultivating it required considerable labor. Cannabis hemp, on the other hand, was an agricultural crop that supported the daily life of ordinary people — used in sacred rope for Shinto rituals, as hemp seeds (onomi) for food, and far more widely as the fabric of the common people.

However, under Japan’s Household Goods Quality Labeling Act enacted in 1962, only linen (flax) and ramie may be labeled as “hemp” (asa) on products. Cannabis hemp, whose production had already been declining by then, could no longer be labeled simply as “hemp.” Today, almost all “hemp cloth” sold for kogin embroidery is either linen (flax) or ramie.

1-2｜Confusion Between “Hemp” and Illegal Drugs

The word “cannabis” (taima) may conjure images of illegal drugs for many people. However, this refers to Indian cannabis (Cannabis indica), a different plant from the native Japanese variety. Indian cannabis is the source of marijuana and contains high concentrations of THC in its flower heads and leaves. The cannabis cultivated in Japan for centuries, by contrast, has very low THC content, and there was no tradition of using it as a narcotic even during its heyday.

Chapter 2｜How Hemp Cloth Was Made in the Edo Period

2-1｜From Cultivation to Thread

Hemp cloth in those days began with farmers growing hemp themselves. After harvesting, the stalks were soaked in water, the bark stripped away, and the extracted fibers dried. The process of making thread was called te-umi (hand-splicing of fibers): the fibers were split into fine strands with the fingertips and joined end to end to form a single continuous thread. To produce long threads, the plants had to be grown tall and straight — a process that required dedicated care.

2-2｜Characteristics of Hand-Woven Cloth

When this thread was woven on a hand loom, the warp threads were packed tightly, leaving gaps between the weft threads. These gaps are thought to be what made it possible to later pass a needle through the fabric to create kogin patterns.

2-3｜Kogin Cloth of the Tsugaru Region

Before cotton became available in Tsugaru, the embroidery thread was ramie. The hemp cloth used in kogin was mostly cannabis hemp; ramie, with its labor-intensive cultivation, was planted less widely and was therefore prized as a finer material. As kogin embroidery grew more popular, ramie cloth came to be used for special-occasion garments as well.

Among surviving antique pieces, some show fibers that have been flattened. This is believed to be the result of pounding the cloth with a kinuta (fulling block) to close the gaps in the weave. Evidence of efforts to seal the weave as tightly as possible can be found not just in the embroidery patterns themselves, but in the fabric preparation.

Chapter 3｜Comparison with Modern Industrial Spinning and Weaving

3-1｜The Reality of Today’s “Hemp Cloth”

The hemp cloth sold today for kogin embroidery is primarily linen (flax). Linen originated in the Near East but is now mainly produced in cooler regions such as northern France and Belgium, which together account for the majority of the world’s flax fiber production. Since spinning is concentrated in China, the country-of-origin labels on linen products commonly show France, Belgium, or China.

3-2｜What Changed With Industrial Spinning

In machine spinning, short fibers are cut into pieces, then twisted tightly together to form a thread. The result is a fine, uniform yarn that, when woven, produces fabric with neatly packed warp and weft. This brings consistency and productivity — but at the cost of transforming the cloth into something fundamentally different from the strong, supple hemp fabric of Japan’s past.

3-3｜The Essential Difference Between Machine Spinning and Hand-Spinning

There are two fundamentally different ways to turn fiber into thread. Hand-spinning (te-umi) takes fibers from the stalk and uses them as long as possible, overlapping the ends and twisting them together into a single continuous thread. Machine spinning cuts the fibers into short pieces, then gradually twists them together to form a long yarn.

Because hand-spun thread uses fibers close to their full natural length, there are fewer joins within the thread — and when pulled, the inherent strength of the fiber itself becomes the strength of the thread. This is a quality short-fiber thread simply cannot replicate.

Hand-spun thread is not only strong, but also retains elasticity — producing a soft, durable yarn that resists pulling without losing flexibility. Machine spinning, which prioritizes uniformity and productivity, cannot reproduce this combination of strength and suppleness. Cannabis hemp in particular has fine, short fibers with a smooth surface that resist twisting, making it especially unsuitable for machine spinning compared to flax or ramie.

Chapter 4｜Can We Still Obtain the Same Cloth?

4-1｜How Hemp Fiber Disappeared So Quickly

There was a time when many ordinary Japanese people wore clothing made from hemp they grew themselves. That world has now completely vanished. The regulations that drove cannabis out of cultivation began not from domestic concerns, but in response to international developments. The 1925 International Opium Convention designated Indian cannabis — with its strong psychoactive properties — as a narcotic. Japan followed in 1930 with the Narcotic Control Regulations, though at that point, native Japanese cannabis, with its minimal psychoactive effects, was treated as distinct from Indian cannabis and excluded from regulation.

After the war, GHQ — without distinguishing between native and Indian varieties — ordered a complete ban on cultivation in 1945. The Japanese government negotiated to maintain production, and in 1947 cultivation for fiber and seed purposes was provisionally permitted. This was codified in the Cannabis Control Act of 1948, establishing a licensing system. Originally intended as a temporary measure to protect producers — one that was meant to be abolished with the restoration of sovereignty in 1952 — it has never been revised and remains in force today.

Legal restrictions alone were not the only cause. The rapid economic growth of the postwar era accelerated the decline. Labor-intensive cannabis cultivation and hand-spinning could not compete with the synthetic fibers that spread through Japan in those years. Then in the 1960s, as marijuana use grew within Western hippie culture, the word “cannabis” became firmly associated with drugs — and the agricultural crop quietly faded from view, overshadowed by that association.

Three forces converged: legal restrictions that lumped together a fiber plant and a narcotic under a single name; the displacement of hand labor by efficient synthetic fibers; and the negative image of drugs. Together, they caused hand-spun cannabis thread to disappear rapidly, starting from the raw material itself.

4-2｜Ramie, Too, Has Become Rare — For Different Reasons

Unlike cannabis hemp, ramie does not require a license to grow, and it continues to be cultivated legally today. In Showa Village in Fukushima Prefecture and on Miyako Island in Okinawa, cultivation continues, supplying raw material for nationally designated Important Intangible Cultural Properties such as Echigo Jofu, Ojiya Chijimi, and Miyako Jofu.

Yet the quality of strength and suppleness achievable only through hand craftsmanship is being pushed aside by the spread of industrially produced substitute fibers. The transmission of traditional skills — cultivation, fiber extraction — is in a critical state. As a result, ramie has become even rarer and more expensive than it once was.

Almost all hemp cloth now sold for kogin embroidery is made from imported materials. Small quantities of hemp (cannabis) can be obtained as imported fiber, but the spinning process differs, resulting in different thread structures and properties. These imported materials may be “hemp cloth,” but they are a different hemp cloth from the one Japan once knew.

[Reference] The full process from ramie cultivation to finished cloth is described in detail on the official website of Okuwetsu Showamura Shinko Corporation. From growing the plants tall and straight to produce long fibers, through every painstaking step, the cloth gradually comes to life.

Introduction to Karamushi Weaving

Conclusion

For now, recreating antique kogin from the same materials used at the time remains out of reach.

Yet cannabis hemp as a plant is beginning to be reassessed worldwide. Internationally, growing demand for sustainable materials has sparked what some call a “green rush,” and in Japan too, people have begun attempting to cultivate and produce hemp as a fiber. There is renewed interest in its low environmental impact, functionality, and many other properties. Companies such as Levi’s and MUJI have begun incorporating hemp into their products as a sustainable material.

In this context, it is not impossible that in the near future, yarns and fabrics with a texture close to the hand-spun cannabis cloth of the past may be produced once again. It may even become possible that new technologies may yet achieve what was once thought impossible — a truly Japanese hemp thread, reborn.

References

• Hemp Museum Japan, A Textbook of Hemp for Japanese People: Rediscovering an “Old Yet New” Crop, East Press, 2021 (ISBN: 9784781619804)
• Yokoshima Naomichi (ed.), Tsugaru Kogin, NHK Publishing, 1974
• Sakuma Yumiko, Let’s Talk Seriously About Marijuana, Bungeishunju, 2019
• FINDERS, “MUJI’s Hemp Shirts and Blouses Are Selling Well: Why ‘Industrial Hemp’ Use Continues Ahead of Legal Reform,” August 7, 2023. https://finders.me/kqFQpDM4NTM
• Japan Flax and Hemp Spinning Association, “About Linen (Flax).” https://asabo.jp/knowledge/linen/
• Japan Flax and Hemp Spinning Association, “About Hemp (Cannabis).” https://asabo.jp/knowledge/hemp/
• MUJI, “In Search of Materials.” https://www.muji.net/lab/blog/sozai/024749.html
• “Cannabis Control Act,” Wikipedia
• “Cannabis Control Act,” Nipponica Encyclopedia
• “Hemp (fiber),” Wikipedia