Antique cloth at the Minamishima Folklore Museum

Focusing on the antique cloths stored at the Minamishima Folklore Museum, the results of a survey based on combustion experiments and microscopic photographs, 5 pieces of Basho, 4 pieces of Katatsuki (Bingata), 39 pieces of white cloth, and 48 pieces of navy blue cloth.

Many of the old traditional textiles preserved at the Minamishima Folklore Museum on Ishigaki Island have been made into illustrated catalogs and are now available to the public!

The full-color exhibits allow visitors to see at a glance the colors and kasuri patterns that the Yaeyama people wore in the past. The collection also includes valuable old fabrics from the poll tax era.

The abundant microscopic images allow for clear identification of the state of the yarn fibers, yarn reel, dyes and pigments.

Please also enjoy the exhibition as a collection of diverse textile works that have been dyed and woven by people with deep emotion since ancient times.

Mitsukuni Matayoshi

He holds a PhD in Engineering from the University of the Ryukyus Graduate School, a Master's in Art from the Kyoto University of Art and Design Graduate School, and is a professor at Okinawa International University. He is engaged in research into combinatorial optimization problems, evolutionary computing methods, and traditional culture and dyeing and weaving techniques. His hobbies are reading classical Chinese and cursive script, and traveling the world. He is a member of the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers/Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), ACM (American Computer Society), the Society for Evolutionary Computation, and the Japan Society for Artificial Intelligence. He is a member of the Amami Okinawa Folk Literature Society and the Society for Asian Ethno-Cultural Studies. He has published numerous papers. His co-authored works include Prayers Hidden in Bingata: The Secrets of Bingata Now Revealed (Okinawa Kyohan, 2006), Furoshiki Design Using Old Ryukyu Bingata Stencils (Okinawa Kyohan, 2010), and Ryuten: The Rebirth of Uchu-ikui Using Old Ryukyu Bingata Stencils.

Author: Mitsukuni Matayoshi Publisher: Nanzansha Publication date: April 1, 2018 Format: A4 size, full color Number of pages: 240