Cotton plants are subject to the
terroir of the areas in which they grow and each region in any country will have its own unique terroir. Itās likely the Japanese were able to take advantage of those factors and crafted a unique type of cotton material.
There are some farmers that will insist they water their cotton plants with dilute beer (Suntory Malts), massage the emergent cotton buds with their fingertips (from where the cotton fibres are derived) and hire blind
biwa players to regale their their crops with tales of samurai derring-do, but this is probably marketing BS. Iāve heard the
carding machines in Japan use tamahagane teeth in their combs (the same steel used to make swords) which produces particularly favourable combing of the fibres. This coupled with decreased carding velocity-mechanisms than used in other countries, allow more time for the cotton fibres to align more accurately for weaving into thread. Also that thread is woven under less tension compared to modern fibres, too, so the fibres are less densely packed giving them better liquid absorption properties because of the greater available surface area availability.
Weaving methods into dÅgi canvas is a bit of a secret across the various manufacturers but superficially it seems Okinawan dÅgi canvas has a looser weave (
denier) with fewer thread per square cm (probably a relic from less advance looms of yesteryear) producing a softer ābrushedā effect whereas the Japanese manufacturers produce a higher denier resulting in a very uniform cloth with a slight āsheenā to it; it looks
beautiful and tailors with much great finesse.
India and Pakistan are cotton material manufacturers par excellence, but their terroir is different to Japanās so their dÅgi canvas has slightly different qualities. This, together with differences in weaving technologies, will result in a different feelā¦not inferior, just
different. Just like the terroir of French grapes and subsequent wines,
very few people will be able to detect those minute differences in their singularity but they might, at best, say, āThis feels
different to X,Y, Japanese.ā I
can tell, with relative ease, the origin (down to the prevailing hillside direction of the cotton plantations) and quality of cotton canvas, but Iāve been at it for many years and have read widely on the subject.
I hope all this helps.
