Nara-zarashi linen workshop

In the workshop opened in 1863, 奈良晒 is still woven by hand: an hour at the loom costs 1,980 yen and you take the cloth you weave home.

The first reference to the bleaching of Nara linen appears in the diary 多聞院日記 under the year 1549; in the mid-Edo period, when the cloth was an official supply to the Tokugawa shogunate, about 90% of the inhabitants of Nara-machi were involved in it. Production today uses hemp from Tochigi Prefecture, processed in three stages: spinning (苧うみ), weaving the warp (織布) and finally bleaching (晒し).

麻布おかい is the workshop and shop of 岡井麻布商店 (Okai Mafu Shōten), founded in 1863 (Bunkyū 3), where you can watch and try the traditional weaving of 奈良晒 (Nara-zarashi), the linen/hemp cloth that in the Edo period was the main industry of Nara-machi. The first documented reference to bleaching (晒) appears in the diary 多聞院日記 under the year Tenbun 18 (1549); the cloth became an official supply to the Tokugawa shogunate and, in the mid-Edo period, about 90% of the inhabitants of Nara-machi were involved to some degree in its production, which was used for the kamishimo and summer clothing of samurai and townspeople. Demand collapsed after the Meiji Restoration, and today production continues on a small scale; the raw hemp now comes from Tochigi Prefecture. The site at 橋本町7-1 is about 5 minutes' walk from Kintetsu Nara Station and 10 from JR Nara Station.

ℹ️ Open 10:00–19:00, every day (無休). The hand-loom weaving experience costs 1,980 yen (excluding tax) and you take home the cloth you make. There is no car park.

🚉 Kintetsu Nara · 9 min walk

Sources: pref.nara.lg.jp · mafu-okai.com

All series · Open the map