Bleaching & Desizing
Fabric arriving from weaving mills is loaded into our 6,000-liter kettle. Combining traditional methods with specialized agents, we slowly boil and refine it over roughly four days. This kettle-boiling method, unchanged since the Edo period, produces wa-zarashi's distinctive softness and absorbency.
Soaking the cloth in water causes the yarn to stretch and shrink significantly, and the finished fabric shrinks by roughly 10%. Because the result differs every time depending on that day's temperature, humidity, and water quality, a craftsman's eye and years of experience are indispensable. "You never know until you open the kettle" — that is both the difficulty and the true appeal of wa-zarashi.
