HARAPPA | AIZU MOMEN(AIZU COTTON)

AIZU MOMEN(AIZU COTTON)

“About Aizu Momen”: Aizu Momen is a traditional craft preserved in the old-Aizu County of the former-Mutsu Province (today’s western Fukushima Prefecture). It originates in the industry promotion measures adopted in the first half of the 17th century.
The cotton textile is plain-woven and durable, and had been broadly utilized for the purposes such as for working clothes since the old times.
It has thickness and soft texture, and is durable enough to stand washing at home.
Its characteristic weaving process involves firm starching of the warp by soaking it in wheat starch solution, prior to weaving in the weft. The starching creates fine nodes between the warp and weft, allowing a layer of air to be contained when woven.
The layer of air contained in the textile provides superior heat-retention as well as perspiration absorbency.; Among all the national cotton textile, Aizu Momen is the one that has the strongest of regional colors, and characteristic that agrees with the locality of Aizu, which on its own is a very unique region.
Developed by the people of Aizu who were born and raised in the typical of the inland basin climate - the hot summer and heavy snow during the winter, Aizu Momen is equipped with a superb temperature adjustment function, which keeps the cool with high ventilation during the summer and helps keeping the body temperature during the winter by almost immediately becoming the same warmth as the body when worn. In fact, unlike the cotton lawn, it never feels cold when touched but gives unbelievable warmth for cotton textile. It is an excellent piece of fabric that can be worn literally throughout the year.; Moreover, the recent dyeing process employs high-fastness (meaning, 'doesn't fade easily') method in order to keep the beautiful stripe patterns, allowing the original condition at purchase to last longer.
It is washable in an ordinary household washing machine (even winter clothes, which you may find convenient), and is a stress-free material that can be used without much care.; HARAPPA intends to be a responsible successor of the policy held by the Harayama Textile Factory, endeavor to develop its business to be the crosslink to the future generations, and tackle new challenges, so that the 400 years of tradition can continue to be passed on to the next hundreds of years.; Also, the textile gets softer as it gets used, making it fun to bring up to your own comfort over years of use. In Japan, where the unique sense of aesthetic sometimes judges being "brand-new" as "tasteless", it could also be joyful to wear it out to the state where people would come up and ask, “how long have you been wearing it?”; After purchasing the raw cotton yarn, every process starting with dyeing is done in our factory (now, after the sudden passing of the factory manager, we are temporarily outsourcing the dyeing to a craftsman who we know is trustworthy, and concurrently striving to restore our own dyeing studio).
The work put into the dyeing of yarn is nothing short of impressiveness.
ll the hard work is summarized into the unique patterns of Aizu Momen, which can only be achieved by placing and layering various colors of yarns. There is no other way but the hard way, in order to achieve these patterns.; Aizu was once called the northern limit for cotton growing.
It would be our dream come true to weave our textile with Aizu-grown cotton.; The factory tour is currently not in operation due to shortage of workers. Only authorized persons may enter the factory.
For inquiry please send email to the following address (replace the star with an @): info☆harappaaizu.com; We are also seeking wholesalers! Please feel free to inquire, and let us know about your website and/or facebook page when you do.
Email: info☆harappaaizu.com (replace the star with an @)