Kojima Jeans Street

photo by Asturio Cantabrio · CC BY-SA 4.0

photo by Asturio Cantabrio · CC BY-SA 4.0

Japan's first jeans were made here in 1965, by people who had previously sewn school uniforms.

Forty shops run by local makers line the street for about 400 metres between the former Nozaki residence and Amino Second Park, and each one sells jeans of its own rather than only reselling: most of the shops still have a small sewing workshop visible from the street or attached to the shop floor. Some shops dye and wash denim on request using their own techniques, from natural indigo to acid treatments that age the fabric in a few hours.

Kojima had been making school uniforms, work clothes and tabi (Japanese two-toed socks) since the Edo period; after 1963 demand for school uniforms fell, and local manufacturers, starting with Maruo Seiyū (now Big John), put their textile experience to new use, sewing jeans from imported American denim for the first time in Japan, in 1965. Since then Kojima has become ‘the birthplace of Japanese jeans’.

ℹ️ The street can be walked at any time; each shop has its own opening hours and closing day, generally daytime hours with a rotating weekday closure. The street promotion committee's information point: 086-472-4450.

🚉 Kojima · 13 min walk

Sources: kurashiki-tabi.jp · journal.meti.go.jp

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