A famous inventor of “Ojiya Chijimi”, which is traditional fabric made of a kind of hemp called “Cho Ma” or “Karamushi”, is Hori Jiro Masatoshi. He came from “Akashi” in “Harimano Kuni”(now “Hyougo Pref.”) with his daughters “Chiyo”, “Kesa” and his wife “Man” in about 1660s (Robert Hooke’s date in England!).

“Ojiya Chijimi” has unique wrinkles, which prevent cloths from sticking on your skin especially in summer season, and the comfortable feature is made by some production processes including “Sarashi”: putting cloths into water to get the texture or generally to breach them.

Ojiyan people in those days must have seen Akashi Jiro’s wife “Man” worked for his workshop and put “Ojiya Chijimi” into a pond nearby. That is “Oman Ga Ike” and you can visit any day now if you don’t mind shoving snow (@@). Here I use “Ojiyan” as the genitive case of “Ojiya” but it’s not a proper Japanese language (^^).

“Oman Ga Ike” is designated as one of cultural properties by Ojiya city.

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