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Two women weaving silk on looms
von Stillfried-Ratenicz, Franz, 1881, Photograph
Item
of 439
Two women weaving silk on looms
Two women weaving silk on looms
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Location
Category
Library Item
Item no
15118
Title
Two women weaving silk on looms
Description
Two Japanese women are weaving material on looms. The one on the left is wearing a blue lined kimono and the woman on the right wears a white one with blue cranes on it. They both have their sleeves tied up in order to work confortably. The woman on the left also wears white tabi socks.
The woman on the right is using a jibata handloom and the woman on the left a takahata weaving apparatus. They are both working in front of painted screens decorated with flowers and other vegetal motifs.
It is difficult to determinate whether the photograph was taken indoors or outdoors; it was probably taken in a factory or in a large building, considering the size of the looms.
Clothes have been piled next to the woman on the left; this indicates that they are probably weaving this kind of fabrics.
Artist / maker
von Stillfried-Ratenicz, Franz
Date
1881
Size
19.5 x 24 cm
Type
Photograph
Location
Art and Design Library
This item is part of a collection of prints from the studio of Baron Franz von Stillfried-Ratenicz, an Austrian photographer practising in Japan in the late 1870's. Von Stillfried ran a studio in Yokohama at the same time as his brother Raimund, who was also known as 'Baron Stillfried'. This caused a great deal of confusion with the local residents and visitors to Japan in the Meiji Period, and with art historians today.
This album, which dates from 1879-83, comprises 67 separate mounted prints presented in a lacquerware box. Albums of this kind were popular among foreign tourists, who frequently selected the individual prints they wished to include from the studio's collection. Many of these albumen prints were hand tinted. This was a laborious process for which von Stillfried employed, at the height of his success, a substantial number of Japanese workers.
The loom on the left-hand side of the picture, a 'takahata', had a bamboo pedal to lift the perpendicular thread up and down. The worker would then pass the shuttle through it to weave the material.
In the Meiji Era (1868-1912), as the looms were getting bigger, the venue for weaving shifted from the private home to the factory. It is also during this period that fabric in Japan became mass-produced. Silk production became a prosperous industry in Japan during the Edo Era (1603-1868) when import of silk was regulated by a new quota system. During the Meiji Era, silk production became one of the most important Japanese exports.
Exhibitions with this item
Views and Costumes of China & Japan
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Related subjects
Manufacturing Industry
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Manufacturing equipment
>
Looms
Manufacturing Industry
>
Manufacturing facilities
>
Silk industry
People
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Adults
>
Women
People
>
Industry
>
Weavers
Places
>
Asia
>
Japan
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