The textile industry in Kyoto dates back to the fifth century, when the Hata family came from the Continent and settled around Uzumasa in Kyoto. They taught the skills of sericulture and weaving silk textiles. Once the Japanese imperial court relocated the capital to the Heian Palace, they had organized the artisans under their weaving office called “Oribe no Tsukasa” and produced high-end textiles for nobles. It was the beginning of the national textile industry in Japan. Around the mid- Heian period, those skilled artisans left the weaving office to run their own businesses, and began adopting advanced techniques from China.
In 1467, the mid of Muromachi period, the epic war “Ounin no Ran” begain in Kyoto, and the prosperous textile industry in the area was catastrophically damaged.. After the war, the artisans who had dispersed , gathered in Kyoto again and revived their businesses around the area used as a stronghold of the West army during “Ounin no Ran.” “Nishi” as in “Nishijin” means “West”, and “jin” means “position”, so that, the area has been called “Nishijin.” The “Nishijin-ori”, textiles produced in the area, were supported by the Imperial court and Hideyoshi Toyotomi, and it experienced great prosperity due the rise of the business class during the Edo period. Furthermore, since it had modernized, adopting the techniques of the Jacquard loom in France in the Meiji period, it had become first class textiles both in name and in reality in Japan.

HOSOO :
During the Genroku Era of the Edo period, their forefather had been named “Hosoo” by the influential temple “Honganji”, and had started to engage in textile industry in Nishijin. In 1923, they had established their own company to produce “Nishijin-ori” kimono and obi as well. Hosoo have collaborated with spirited foreign designers to develop new kimono products, and they have exhibited a series of kimono cushion “WABI” and “RINPA” in “Maison & Objet” held in Paris, France in 2007.