Denim hanging over Jeans Street in Okayama prefecture, home to Japan’s top denim manufacturers and stores.
Photographer: Fred Mery/BloombergJapanese Denim Is Going Global, Just as It Runs Out of Artisans
Despite soaring sales and international hype, Kojima’s famed denim mills are struggling to replace a dwindling pool of master weavers.
In a dim warehouse in Kojima, a rural port town at the heart of Japan’s denim industry, the deafening clatter of automated looms doesn’t seem to bother Shigeru Uchida as he bends over the machines to ensure they’re running smoothly.
The 79-year-old is used to the loud rattle of the wooden shuttles shifting back and forth, as cotton fibers drift through air that’s thick with the acrid smell of oil. Five decades spent weaving textiles have stained his fingertips a deep blue.