extra (special) edition

In the second part, the "people" who create IKEUCHI quality will appear.

extra (special) edition

In general, the process of making towels and shipping them as products involves 13 steps as described in the process of making towels. After the yarn arrives at IKEUCHI ORGANIC, the threads are seikei (warped) and wound on the stretcher, weaving machines are operated by craftsmen at the loom as described in the first part of “IKEUCHI’s People” to weave the yarn into fabric.

The woven fabric is then unrolled, inspected, and shipped to the dyeing factory of a partner company, where it is desized and dyed. Once the fabric has been desized and dyed, it returns to IKEUCHI ORGANIC and is shipped again to our sewing department or to the sewing and embroidery companies of our partner companies, where it is sewn, embroidered, and other processes are performed. From here, each towel is inspected by human eyes, packed in bags or gift boxes, and shipped to retailers or directly to customers.

From vol. 9, the second part of this series, we will focus on the people involved in quality control and inspection at IKEUCHI ORGANIC. We hope to take the opportunity to tell you about the people at the dyeing factory, sewing company, and other partner companies who are involved in the process of transforming woven fabrics into finished products.

About Imabari, a towel production area

The history of towel production in Imabari is the background of towel production that is not completed by a single company. The history of Imabari towel production area was pioneered by the wisdom and energy of our predecessors. By learning these facts, why did a company like IKEUCHI ORGANIC appear in Imabari, a regional city?　We have written about Imabari, the largest towel production area in Japan, below, so please take a moment to read it before the second part.

Imabari towels started 120 years ago with 4 looms

Since the Edo period (1603-1867), the Imabari area has had a climate suitable for cotton cultivation, and cotton weaving has flourished in the area. In 1894, Heisuke Abe began towel production on four looms, but it was not a major production center in Japan until the end of the Meiji period (1868-1912). The main production centers at that time were Osaka, Hyogo, and Aichi, and these regions prospered as industries by exporting towels, which were a luxury item at the time, to overseas markets where consumers were more numerous. In the Imabari region at that time, where transportation was far less convenient than today, there were no such sales channels, there was little technical exchange with advanced production areas, and the towels were of inferior quality.

Through the wisdom of engineers, Imabari became one of the leading towel production centers in Japan.

It was the invention of an improved loom by Tsunezaburo Fumoto in 1910 that brought Imabari’s towel industry a great leap forward. Subsequent technological innovations, such as weaving with yarn-dyed yarn, improved quality and production, and in 1921, the industry surpassed Wakayama, Aichi, and Hyogo to become the second largest towel-producing region in Japan, after Osaka. In 1960, Imabari became the largest towel production area in Japan in terms of production volume, surpassing Osaka.

The collapse of the bubble economy and the double whammy of imported towels

Although production declined somewhat during the oil shocks of the 1970s, it grew to a peak of 50,456 tons in 1991. However, it then declined for 18 consecutive years until 2009 due to the collapse of the bubble economy and an increase in imported towels. Towel production dropped to 9,381 tons, one-fifth of its peak, and the number of towel manufacturers, which was nearly 500 at its peak, decreased to about 100.

Factory Branding Leading to IKEUCHI ORGANIC

Amidst the headwinds in the domestic towel industry, Ikeuchi Towel (at that time) began to develop a factory brand in 1999, which was rare for towel makers in Imabari, which at that time was mainly OEM. This was eight years before the “Imabari Towel” brand was introduced to the market. The brand name was IKT, which means “organic cotton towels” in Japanese. The brand name is IKT, and the company expands overseas (North America). In 2002, IKT received the New Best Award at the New York Home Textile Show (now NY NOW), the largest exhibition of daily necessities and general merchandise in North America, held in New York. After winning that award, the following year, IKT was picked up by the mass media in Japan, and the name “Kaze de Oriuru Towel” and the IKT brand became widely known.

Re-establishment of the brand in the production area

At this time, the sense of crisis in the entire production area of Imabari was becoming more acute. In 2006, the Shikoku Towel Manufacturers Association launched the Imabari Towel Brand Project in earnest to revive the towel production area of Imabari. The current Imabari Towel Brand logo was unveiled in 2007 with creative designer Kashiwa Sato. Three years later, in 2010, towel production in the Imabari towel production area began to increase, and as you are probably aware, the Imabari brand is now recognized in Japan as a brand that produces high-quality towels.

The Road Ahead for Japan’s No. 1 Towel Production Area

After the collapse of the bubble economy, the towel industry went into decline, but the Imabari area is now making a comeback with its high quality towels, which are not only pricey but also have a strong reputation for quality and are backed up by numerical values. Our predecessors also grasped the title of Japan’s No. 1 towel production area through their wisdom. IKEUCHI ORGANIC and the manufacturers in Imabari who have inherited this DNA are taking on new challenges every day to ensure their survival.

Text by Takeshi Kamio
Photographer: Yuji Kimura (Kimura Photo Office)

*References and websites
Honhonhon Towel Industry Magazine, Japan Towel Manufacturers’ Association, Inc.
Tsutsunaru” Management, Exknowledge
Imabari Towel Miracle Revival Asahi Shinbunsha Publishing Co.
History of Imabari Towel Textsport Imabari http://www.imabari-texport.com/learning/history.html