"Satsuma Handwoven Kasuri Kasane no Makoto"

When the warrior, Mr. Minoru Koji, wore Akatsuo Nagae's cotton satsuma, he was impressed by its extremely nice touch, unparalleled comfort, and the wonderfulness of the Kasuri. As stated in these words, it is no exaggeration to say that Akio Nagae's half-life has been dedicated to making Satsuma. "Sincere unrivaled" that expresses the character itself. We are particular about each thread, and we are particular about each and every Kasuri fabric to create a woven fabric that everyone wants. The passion that has been focused on fabrics has led to the creation of a number of works called "Phantom Cotton Satsuma."
Akio Nagae was born in Amami Oshima in 1915. My grandfather grew up in a family called Oshima Tsumugi's inventor, who was familiar with textiles, but Mr. Nagae left Fukui University and got a job at a major general contractor and started as an engineer. It was
Then, World War II begins. Mr. Nagae also received a convocation warrant and went to the battlefield. After two years of detention in Siberia, he lived a life that cannot be expressed in words in the frigid cold of Siberia, ending the war. When I finally came to Kagoshima to return to my hometown of Amami Oshima after being freed from harsh detention life, my hometown of Amami Oshima was not a Japanese territory under American occupation. Losing his hometown and unable to meet all his relatives, the young Nagae remains in Kyushu. Then, you will meet "Togo Textile," which has a workshop in Miyakonojo, Miyazaki Prefecture. Then Nagae's second life began.

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"Until the birth of Watatsu Satsuma"

It is the second life that I started, saying, "Woven fabrics that will last forever. I want to leave a proof of my life on those fabrics." At first, we started to weave the traditionally known "Satsuma Kasuri", the present Miyako Jofu. However, there is something different from the fabric Nagae pursued. From that feeling, the search for weaving begins over the years.
Under such circumstances, I saw "cotton" that has been loved and worn by Japanese people for a long time, and because it is a material that can be produced in large quantities, it is treated too crudely, and one idea was born from Mr. Nagae. It was "Isn't there a way to use cotton that is the most wonderful and easy to use in Japan?" From here, the making of Mr. Nagae's Watatsu Satsuma begins.
First, improve the texture. I thought that it would feel as good as silk, and decided to use the finest thread of cotton. Then I decided to apply the most wonderful technology in Japan. What came to my mind here is the technique of Kasuri that uses a fastener that was used in Nagae's hometown of Oshima Tsumugi.
However, simply changing the material from silk to cotton does not allow the fastening technology to adapt easily. Even when sizing is applied to the thread, if the silk thread dries the glue and the thread sticks, and the marking of the Kasuri works well, but when the glue dries, the cotton loses its weight and hangs down drastically. The position also tends to shift, and when you hang it on the machine, the Kasuri will not fit. In addition, silk threads can be woven like slips, whereas cotton threads do not slide smoothly and catch the lure, so it does not proceed as expected. Even Oriko, who is accustomed to weaving Oshima pongee, continued to say that she had no hands or feet.
It was cotton Satsuma that weaved through many years, but the next challenge was to shrink when washed with water. For this reason, the woven fabric that has just been woven is repeatedly dipped in water to shrink it, and only to remove the color, so that the finished product does not lose its color as much as possible and does not shrink at all. did. In order to endure this much process, when weaving the machine, we have to make it wider than ordinary fabrics, calculate the degree of shrinkage, and then start weaving. Also, in dyeing, it is necessary to change the density in consideration of the color fading condition. My experience back then worked as an engineer for these calculations.
As a result of such trial and error, after 15 years of thinking, it was finally possible to create the current “Satsuma”, a “textile that is supple and soft to the touch and has a texture and texture”.