Ramie

ちょま

Pleasant to touch, pleasant to wear
pleasant to see its greenish lucency

Scientific Classification

Urticaceae (Nettle-family)

Boehmeria

Name Examples in Japanese*1

Karamushi, Aoso, Mao, Hiuji, Kappontan, Bu, Choma / "Ramie"

You can see the greenish light through ramie fibers - they're airy and translucent like mayfly's feather.

The fibers just extracted by skilled people are glossy and glow like pearls in a dim room. They always took my breath away with its beauty. Once being bundled up, they look like a bride in a dress made of layered sheer cloth. When I touch them, they push my hands back as if they're alive, making nice rustling sound.

I could never extract fibers in such brilliance. But it also makes me glad just to see the slight glow revealing from green stem peels.

The fibers are to be split neatly without getting frayed, since they are made up of highly elongated cells. With their high tensile strength they can be tensioned during splitting and yarn making - I sometimes cut my lips or tongue with them. I heard that if you carefully ply-join ramie fibers of high quality - fine but strong and with less hairs -, the yarn can be stretched on loom without twisting; normally it must be thoroughly twisted before warping in order to strengthen the yarn. Also fiber lint must be rolled up into yarn by twisting so that it is not to get caught in a "reed" of a loom.

The touch of fibers makes me pleasant. They're rough but comfortable, and make me want to touch them forever. Since they're not hairy, they don't cause dust, and my nose don't react; so I can work on them all the time. I think it's essential to feel comfortable, not to feel unpleasant.

【Notes】

*Numbers in parentheses are number of references below

Charasteristics of Ramie Plant

A perennial plant in Urticaceae family. It's similar to stinging nettles common in Europe, while its hairs are not stinging. Native to Asia, you'll find it all over Japan at river banks or at road side. It will grow up around 2m with fertilizing and has heart-shaped leaves with jagged edge which taste like spinach. They're covered by hairs on the underside; some of them look white with its dense layer of hairs. Leaves, stems, rhizomes and roots are materials of chinese medicine, according to an encyclopedia of the 18th century.

Since ramie seeds don't germinate well(24), it is propagated　with rhizomes. Grows rapidly and is to be harvested for multiple times a year under good conditions. The above-ground part dies in winter in cool regions and new shoots come up from ground in spring.

There are many types (subspecies, varieties or formae), they look differently and have different properties.

History of Ramie in Japan

It's said that ramie fibers have been used as a material of ropes, fabrics and other textile products for a long time. Japanese people probably begun weaving ramie in prehistoric ages; you can find a mention about ramie textile production in Japan in a Chinese historical text written in the end of 3rd century. Another document, written in Japan, says that ramie cultivation was encouraged by the emperor in 7th century.
From 17th to 19th century, the demand on ramie fibers rose as materials of fishing nets and clothing. Especially the popularity of fine ramie fabrics in cities encourage farmers to develop their cultivation and fiber extracting skills; ramie fibers were vital source of income in some mountainous areas where rice doesn't grow well. (6,9-12,18)
In 20th century, some varieties of ramie was introduced from overseas and some were improved. They are now not cultivated but can still be found in Japan.

Properties of Ramie Fiber

Ramie fiber is characterized by four points: crispy touch, silky luster, strength and cool feeling.

A fiber ribbon obtained from one stem consist of many elongated fiber cells sticking each other with gum. Cells have an oval shape in cross section and a lumen at the center. The length of one fiber is one of the highest among plant fiber cells. They are strong against tension, which get stronger when wet. Ramie fabrics feel cool to touch because they conduct heat well, absorb sweat and dry quickly(1,2,2,23).

Fiber color, luster, strength and how easily they fray or can be split vary with a number of factors: types, soil, cultivation methods, harvest timing, and the ways of decortication and refining. Cloth woven with machine-made yarn and that with hand-spun yarn have very different texture.*2

Principle of Fiber Extraction *3

Reap ramie and pull away leaves and lateral shoots
Peel off skin from stems
Separate bast layer from outer bark
Refine fibers

[Fieldwork record]

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[Footnotes]
*1 About names in Japanese

The name "karamushi" may be a common name, for it is used in Wiki and written in an encyclopedia in 18th century. But another name "mao" is also written there, and people call this plant differently from region to region. We have an other name "苧麻choma", which comes from Chinese word "苎麻zhùmá".

English word "ramie" seems to be applied to types from overseas or improved ones introduced around 20th century: people distinguished those types from ramie native to Japan, the first was called with the name native to the region and the latter seemed to be called "ramie" or that kind of words.

*Machine-made spun yarn have different characteristics from handmade, ply-jointed yarn: it's because the fibers are degummed with chemicals and cut into uniform size for spinning (1,2,23). During those procedures they become weak and not durable. For example, when I made ramie cloth with ply-jointed weft and machine-spun warp and used it everyday for several years, ply-jointed weft got softer and softer but didn't broke. On the other hand, machine-made warp got weaker and frayed.

Machine-made yarn is sometimes very hairy since ramie fibers don't get tangled easily. I bought such hairy ramie yarn once, and they were very difficult to handle as warp.

*The method of fiber extraction varies from region to region, from country to country. This principle is just one example.

In Japan, people mostly seem to follow this principle - cut, remove leaves, peel, decorticate and refine the fibers - but the details are different and uses different tools: for example, metal plates with wood handle in Showa in Fukushima and Oe in Yamagata, shells in Miyako island, Okinawa.
I heard that In Taiwan, some people use tools made of bamboo.

【References】

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Encyclopædia Britannica "Ramie" https://www.britannica.com/plant/ramie（閲覧日2021/6/20）
消費者庁「繊維の名称を示す用語」 https://www.caa.go.jp/policies/policy/representation/household_goods/guide/fiber/fiber_term.html（閲覧日2021/6/20）
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