Below is my guide and index page to Masako Kinoshita’s Loop-Manipulation Braiding Research and Information Center News, issues 1-13, plus its associated Illustrated Instruction series. (Skip here to the guide. Read about why L-MBRIC is such an important resource in the endnote below my guide.) The guide below provides a working link and a brief summary of the articles in each issue. Two alternative links are given, one for the archived version of the original issue, and the other for a new version hosted on the new L-MBRIC website. Only issues 1-6 were imported to the new site before the original L-MBRIC domain expired. However black-and-white scans of issues 7-13 are available on the new website, donated by Elliot Evans. With Kinoshita’s family’s permission, he has also made available a PDF scan of his entire black-and-white hard copy of L-MBRIC, which can be downloaded from his website .
Currently my guide below is the only site I know of that gives a synopsis of what’s in each of the 13 L-M BRIC issues and their accompanying Illustrated Instruction series, along with a link to the archived original on the Internet Archive. (*See note) The archived issues have good functionality – images will enlarge, and links work. The Japanese versions of each issue are also available there. Thank you Internet Archive! It is an amazing resource in so many ways!
I just finished fixing all the previously broken links in my index so they now go directly to the archived issues! The new, working links are beside each issue’s title – the word “archived” as a live link will go directly to the archived issue. The link “new website” will go to that issue on the new LMBRIC website – her heirs set that website up in a partially successful attempt to migrate L-MBRIC’s content over when its domain was about to expire.
Masako Kinoshita (4/24/1926 – 8/4/2022) was L-MBRIC’s originator and editor. My post on Kute-uchi describes her groundbreaking work in uncovering its forgotten history in Japan. Kute-uchi was a highly evolved and sophisticated loop braiding tradition at least 1000 years old, that included both fingerheld and handheld loop braiding techniques, done by one to several braiders working on a braid. Masako Kinoshita rediscovered its elaborate techniques by analyzing veiled and secretive references in a 19th C. document, and analyzing extant braids that are preserved as cultural treasures in Japanese museums and temples. Her L-MBRIC website was another labor of love she kept up for over 10 years.
L-M BRIC home page: archived, new website
Introductory/ Home page, with links to each of the thirteen L-MBRIC issues [the new website‘s home page shows links to only 3 issues, click on the menu icon and then “newsletters” to find the others].
The homepage includes a link to a bibliography of loop braiding resources (dated 2002, revised 2004 and 2005)
Japanese 日本語版 and English versions: Each archived L-MBRIC issue contains a link to its Japanese or English counterpart at the top of the page. For example, click on “Nihongo-ban” in any English issue’s header to go to the Japanese version. However, most of the Illustrated Instruction issues never had these links to their Japanese/ English language counterparts, so for the Illustrated Instruction series only, my guide below includes a link to the archived Japanese version following the links to the English version. (The new L-MBRIC website does not have the Japanese language versions.)
(My index to the 13 L-MBRIC issues begins after the following two stand-alone Illustrated Instruction issue entries.)
Two very significant Illustrated Instruction issues were never clearly connected to a particular issue of LMBRIC, so I’m listing them up-front here, before the main list:
Illustrated Instruction Series, Section 2 – on Side-by-side Interconnection of Two Braids – Japanese version 日本語版 [On LMBRIC, the only link to this Illustrated Instruction article was hidden at the bottom of Issue 8, just above the link to Issue 8’s own illustrated instruction article. Its obscure location made this link very hard to find, which was why I placed this and the following listing first in my index!]
Three methods for two cooperating braiders working side-by-side to connect their braids into one:
1. Connecting the two braids by loop interchange [a.k.a. “exchange”] of the two braiders’ adjacent, neighboring two loops.
2. Connecting the two braids by two loop interchanges between the braiders – at both the nearest and farthest selvedges (edges of each separate braider’s braids). Makes a tubular couvert or compound braid when done with bicolor loops – color photos of examples, both European and Japanese. [I call some of these braids “double-tubular”, because they are literally one braided tube within another braided tube. ~Ingrid]
3. Connecting the two braids by one braider passing a loop to the other, in alternating directions on every other row, rather than 2 loops being exchanged simultaneously.
[Method no. 3 above was hypothesized by Speiser, and later documented in practice, as well as inferred from older braid artifacts, in Sulawesi, Indonesia – see LMBRIC issues 8, 9, 12 below on Sulawesi loop braiding ~Ingrid]
Illustrated Instruction Series, Intro to KUTE-UCHI Basic Procedures – Japanese version 日本語版
(see also Illustrated Instruction issue 7 below, on single-faced Kikko kute-uchi braids). [This Illustrated Instruction Series issue was hard or impossible to find on the old L-MBRIC site, there seemed to be no link to it either on the home page or from within any of the 13 issues.] I give a very thorough outline below to help interpret and expand Kinoshita’s text which is sometimes a bit dense and abbreviated.
Intro to handheld Kute-uchi procedures, and braids for a solo braider. MATERIALS; Preparation of the loops and kute; How to transfer a loop; Braids reconstructed by Masako Kinoshita from early 19th C. records: 2-step [=2 loop transfers] procedures, and 4-step procedures for a solo braider. [No two-worker braids described.]
[2 or 4-step braids have 2 or 4 interlacing moves/ i.e. loop transfers. Handheld loop braids with 4 steps usually require either an odd or even number of loops on each hand, or sometimes a specific number of loops. This is indicated for example, as (O-E) meaning an odd no. of loops on left hand, and an even no. on right, or (5-4) for 5 loops on the left hand; 4 on the right. 4-step procedures done with hand-held loops produce many braids that cannot be made in using 4-step procedures with fingerheld loops (like Spanish braids, or double braids)! For example, these kute-uchi possibilities include: 4-layer braids such as a Σ-shaped accordion-folded braid that unfolds to be a double-wide flat braid; two separate, stacked square braids (or 4 separate, stacked thin flat braids) made simultaneously; two stacked and connected square braids joined together vertically into a vertical double-square braid; [Not discussed in this article, since Kinoshita doesn’t delve into team braiding here: these 4-layer braids can then be joined horizontally when two or more braiders cooperate, giving massive and intricate 4-layer braids such as quadruple-square braids or even wider versions, double-faced Kikko patterns etc];
Kinoshita describes 6 different 1-step interlacing moves out of a total of 8, these moves are first taught/described as for example “Inside-Through (IT)” or “Outside-Around (OA)” (and either C or O for crossed vs open/ turned vs not turned). But then, in the directions for the various 4-step braids she abbreviates this, and labels the 6 different 1-step moves A, B, C, D, F and G (E and Z are not presented, but can be inferred). So every 4-step braid can be shown by a combination of 4 of those letters plus (number of loops/ or Odd-Even) for number of loops on each hand. A = an open (not turned) Inside-Through move; B = a crossed (turned) Inside-Through move; and so on, for each pair of letters. The accompanying track-plan diagrams do nicely illustrate the cross-section shape/ structure of the resulting braid, but aren’t necessary for following braiding instructions. Notes and references
L-MBRIC no. 1, 1998 archived, new website – Loop braiding historical background and references, incl 1st C. BCE bronze Chinese figures loop braiding (more details in LMBRIC no.3), 13th C. European fresco apparently showing 2 loop braiders cooperating to make a longer braid (further information from Noemi Speiser in LMBRIC no.4 clarifies that the German word “dringen” in the fresco meant “to braid” in old German, so there is no question as to that interpretation of the fresco), illustration from India showing an Indian loop braider, possibly using Method 2 (V-fell)? [see also Issue 5, Indian loop braiding confirmed as V-fell by Zoe Kuhn Williams]; Notes
Illustrated Instruction Series, 1 Introduction to Finger-held loops archived, new website – Japanese version 日本語版
Materials used for braiding; Preparation of the loops; F-L (Finger-held) L-M (Loop-Manipulation) and H-H (Hand-held) L-M; the three distinctive methods in the F-H L-M; Terms used in illustrated instructions; Braids with an Orthodox Pattern; Braids with an Unorthodox Pattern, FIVE STEPS OF F-H L-M procedure; Track-Plans; Notes
L-M BRIC Issue no. 2, 1999, archived, new website – Panama, Columbia, Siberia; Notes
Illustrated Instruction Series Issue 2 archived, new website – Japanese version 日本語版
Instructions for braids in L-MBRIC issue 2:
Cuna Indians in Colombia: 7-LOOP SPIRIT BRIDGE; Burial String TYPE I (5-loop square braid); Cuna Indians Burial String TYPE II; UO No. 1 [Unorthodox braid no.1] using method #1; using method #2; Closure string of a jacket of the Khanty tribe of Siberia – method 1, method 2.
L-M BRIC no. 3, 2000 archived, new website – Fingerloop Braids from the 12th – 15th-c. Dump Sites in London, UK.; L-M BRAIDING in China from the First Century BC (bronze figures -also shown and discussed in Issue 1 above); L-M Braiding of THAI Minority People the KARENS and the AKHAS; Book announcement by Noémi Speiser Old English Pattern Books for Loop Braiding; Notes
Illustrated Instruction Series Issue 3 archived, new website – Japanese version 日本語版
(Supplemental info to what was covered in Illustrated Instruction, Issue 1)
Track plans and hand diagrams for four more 5-loop basic braids.
L-M BRIC no. 4, 2001, archived, new website – Lace as a loop braiding technique (Catherine Wheel; Lace Maskell & Frettys; Uppsala Sudary insertion; Das Lintwurm Portlein; English lace insertions in 2 Portuguese copes), new openwork braid manuscripts found, one in German; re: 13th C. fresco the ‘Haus zur Kunkel’ in Constance, Germany (image is in LMBRIC no.1) translation of middle German meaning of word ‘dringen’ in fresco as “braiding”; [Re lace/ openwork, see also L-M BRIC no. 9 for photo of an Indonesian loop-braided openwork lace-like insertion, made by three braiders working together]; Notes
Illustrated Instruction Series Issue 4 archived, new website – Japanese version 日本語版
L-M Braiding as Lace-Making Techniques:
The basic two procedures used for making Katheren Wheele, etc; The Katheren Wheele and Das Lindwurm Portlein;
L-M BRIC no.5, 2002 archived, new website – 2 types of Single-Course Twining made by loops – Type 1 = ‘woven’, and Type 2 SCOT = braided (single-course oblique twining); The Hunzas of northern Pakistan make 8-ridge Type 1 twining for the edge trimming of a cap… they also make a 10-ridge version using all ten fingers… The Hunza type 1 [woven-type] edge trimmings made by L-M [loops, but not braided] always have 2-ply twines of S- and Z-twist next each other; SCOT Braids from Fifth-century Japanese Burial Mounds by Mari Omura et al; The Yaos in Thailand..braids used for edge trimmings of caps, clothes, bags and bridal saddle blankets…also for button loops; The L-M used in India has been found to be ‘inner-finger operated’ method; Mystery of a Beater Stand Illustrated on the Face of a Cypress-strip Fan; About Single Course Twining (with 2 Sets of Elements; Single Course Oblique Twining (SCOT); Ancient Japanese SCOT braids and Kute-uchi) notes
Illustrated Instruction Series Issue 5 archived, new website – Japanese version 日本語版
1. Loop-twined Edge Trimming Braid for a cap used by the Hunza People; 2. Loop-Manipulation Procedure for Making SCOT (single course oblique twining); 3. The Yao’s f-h l-b method: Palms-up and operating with the ring finger
L-M BRIC no.6, 2003 archived, new website – L-m braids ca. 1630-40, Found at Rosenborg Castle, Copenhagen (link to separately hosted article); Family Tradition of L-M Braiding Kept in Aomori, Japan by Mrs. Kumeda (finger-held loop braiding); Loop braiding beater stands: in early 19th-c. picture of a loop braider in Egypt; discussion and/or images of beater stands in Bulgaria, Morocco, Japan; Loop-Braiding Text from Karlsruhe, Germany; loop braiding in Finland [see also issue 11 on evidence from Finland for V-fell braiding using 9 loops, with thumbs as well as fingers holding loops]; Notes
Illustrated Instruction Series Issue 6 archived, new website – Japanese version 日本語版
Braids on Frederik III’s gown; MRS. KUMEDA’S finger-held loop-braiding method; Karlsruhe Document Braids : 1st group = square and flat twill braids; 2nd group = 4-loop square or round braids in two patterns “Corkscrew” and “Straight columns” (same structure as NARABI KAKUYATSU of the “Genji” family in KUMIHIMO)
Issues 7 – 13 below never migrated over to the new WordPress L-MBRIC site, but the new website has PDF scans of black-and-white hardcopy of those issues, donated by Elliot Evans.
L-M BRIC no. 7, 2004 archived, scan on new website – Bronze Age loop braid found in Middle East archaeological site; Fragments of Tortoise Shell Design Braids Proving the Practice of the Procedure Proposed by N. Speiser; Tortoise-shell-pattern (kikko) braids; Braids on Relic Purses in Sion, Switzerland (unusual loop exchange); 17th-century specimen found fr Denmark or Northern Germany; Florentine fresco shows loop-manipulation warp-twining; Edge Trimmings on the Llangorse Textile from Wales – Tablet Woven or Loop Braided (2-loop braids)? Notes
Illustrated Instruction Series Issue 7 archived, scan on new website– Japanese version 日本語版
Single-face Tortoise-shell Design Braids (single-faced Kikko braids): 3 different loop-braiding methods (kute-uchi), also references to kumihimo (stand-and-bobbin) methods, as well as pictures of double-faced kikko.
L-M BRIC no. 8, 2005 archived, scan on new website – Braiding Instructions [highly analogous to those in the known 15th C. manuscripts] Found within a 17th-C. Printed Book: “Nature Unbowelled/ Natura Exenterata” a.k.a. “the Serene” [for the braiding section]; Unorthodox braid patterns in English records; Sulawesi, Indonesia loop braiding, part 1 of 3 (cont. in issue 9); Notes
Illustrated Instruction Series Issue 8 archived, scan on new website– Japanese version 日本語版
Two-person couvert and compound braids compared between the Tollemach manuscript and the newly-discovered Serene (‘Nature unbowelled’) manuscript. Kumihimo comparisons to Shiguchi and Mitake-kumi. In the Serene, the methods of covert and compound braid making are applied to 3 more types of two-person twill braids than in the Tollemach manuscript. (described and diagrammed with hand-loop illustrations).
L-M BRIC no. 9, 2006 archived, scan on new website – Sulawesi, Indonesia braiding part 2 of 3 (part 3 in issue 12): funerary headbands, pull strings and carry straps for bags, pouches, dagger sheaths, cord for beadwork adormnment/accessories, decorative trim and insertions on clothing, first report of current-day 2-person braiding, 2-person 9-loop braids, 3-person braided lacework artifact, 2 people braiding an extra-long loop braid, purses;
Article (link) by Joy Boutrup on the braided seal strings on a 1590 Danish royal marriage document; Report from Quinghai, Northwestern China 7-9th C. “…braid trimmed over seam lines of a slipper”; L-M braiding in Ecuador and in Ethiopia; Braid making for a replica of a Japanese national treasure laced armor (1185-1333 CE) by Chizuru Nishioka – used hand-held loop braiding, using a braiding frame for providing “extra hands”; Report from Frieda Sorber: Braids on a 5th-7th C. Central Asian purse, a European loop braided seal string from 1253, loop braiding documented in Morocco and Tunisia, illustration of two women loop braiding seen in an old Greek weaving book, Turkish example seen; Report by Mari Omura on the international Symposium “Handling Carriage Horses like Braiding” held in conjunction with The Gangoji Temple Special Exhibition of the same title (see LMBRIC no. 10 and 11 for more details on recent historical findings on loop braiding in Asia); Notes
Illustrated Instruction Series Issue 9 archived, scan on new website – Japanese version 日本語版
L-M Braiding in Sulawesi Island, Indonesia [relates to L-MBRIC issues 8 , 9, and 12]
1. Sulawesi basic method 2 (V-fell) loop braiding, for making the “trinity”: divided, square, and flat braids.
2. Braids used in Sulawesi as carry straps and edgings for bags.
a. Carry-strap has solid area that divides into two thinner braids at each end. These are threaded through the wide, flat edging braid along the upper edge of the bag.
b. The wide, flat braided edging is braided with multiple short slits through which the braided carry-cord/ handles can be threaded. [Instructions for both a and b, and photo which can be enlarged to show details – great bag design, similar to certain medieval European purses, but with additional element of an edging braided with holes for drawstrings to be threaded through. Instructions are not necessary if one knows how to make the braids, just looking at the photo is enough. (more Sulawesi bag illustrations can be seen in L-M BRIC issues 8 and 9)]; Notes
L-M BRIC no. 10, 2007 archived, scan on new website – Guajiro [Wayuu] loop braiding (Colombia and Venezuela): 12 or more braids [including one almost identical to the European Grene Dorge/Barleycorn, but having 2 more loops], indications that the Wayuu make multiple-braider braids; ‘Kaku-hira-uchi Braid Fragments,’a pair of unusual Japanese national treasure braids from 1185-1333 just revealed to the public; Loop-Manipulation Braids on a Fifteenth-century Purse, report by Noemi Speiser; Xi – Lace-like [braided] Fabric Fragments from the Warring Period (402 BC-221 BC) M.Kinoshita’s report regarding research by Mari Omura et al on braided textiles from tombs in Hupei province, China. [structure = plain oblique twining/ POT]; Modern Attempt at Making a Medieval Fingerloop-Braiding Booklet, by Kimberly Frodelius [contains some beautiful variations/ combinations of 15th C braids!]; Notes
Illustrated Instruction Series Issue 10 archived, (included in scan above on new website) – Japanese version 日本語版 – GUAJIRO [Wayuu] BRAIDING TECHNIQUES;
L-M BRIC no. 11, 2008 archived, scan on new website – Finnish Finger-Held Loop-Manipulation Braiding Operated by the Small Finger [including 9-loop braids made using thumbs as well as fingers] – source cited in Notes (note 1); Mari Omura: Braids in Chinese Classics And Excavated Braids from the Warring States Chu Cemetery [photos of Mari Omura recreating the pick-up patterned Chinese “letterbraid” technique using hand-held loops – “Xi” type braided structure, reported in issue 10 above] [note 11]; Yi people loop-manipulation braid [needlecase], Sechuan, China; Idiosyncratic Appearances of Braids with an Unorthodox Pattern; Young People Enjoying Braiding. Notes
Illustrated Instruction Series Issue 11 archived, (included in scan above on new website) – Japanese version 日本語版 – Fingerloop Braiding with 9 (and more) Loops, Using Method 2. [contributed by me before I had established my Loop Braiding website. Updated versions of this photo-tutorial (including video) are now on my site: 9-loop square and flat braids, and 11-loop square and flat braids.]
L-M BRIC no. 12, 2009 archived, scan on new website – Initial Observations on “The Nun’s Book”-a new 17th C discovery; Sulawesi, Indonesia Loop Braiding part 3: Men’s Funerary Headbands, ‘giving-taking’ loop exchange between two co-operating braiders using 9 loops; Notes
Illustrated Instruction Series Issue 12 archived, (included in scan above on new website) – Japanese version 日本語版 – “A lace vice of three colours” [tubular twined loop braid] Instructions by Joy Boutrup from recipe no. 66, page 437 Natura Exenterata, 1655, British Library, E. 1560.778.c.3 a.k.a.the Serene document
L-M BRIC no. 13, 2010 archived, scan on new website – L-M in Yao Country, Yunan, China; Book review of European Loop Braiding: Investigations and Results Parts I and II; Index for L-M BRIC News, no.s 1-12.
[no notes/references section in issue 13]
Illustrated Instruction Series Issue 13 archived, (included in scan above on new website) – Japanese version 日本語版
Three Warp-twining Braids Methods: 4-loop parallel-twine square braid from Karlsruhe, Germany. (L-MBRIC News No. 6); Green Dorge – 6-loop braid fr. the Tollemache Book of Secrets, #38; Bridle – 8-loop braid of the Guajiro people of Columbia; Analyses of the braids
Loop-Manipulation Braiding Research and Information Center News was Masako Kinoshita’s 13-issue online compendium/ annual newsletter on loop braiding worldwide history and practice. She published an issue a year from 1998 to 2010, in Japanese and English versions.
The Illustrated Instruction Series was a parallel series of how-to articles. Some are very short, others quite in-depth. In general each of these accompanied a specific L-MBRIC issue, but was on a separate, linked page. It will help to learn Kinoshita’s terminology, acronyms, and diagrams in order to understand her instructions (See her first illustrated instruction articles). For example, “L-M braiding” or “the L-M technique” = loop-manipulation braiding. F-H L-M = fingerheld loop-manipulation (braiding), H-H L-M = hand-held loop-manipulation.
L-MBRIC is a wellspring of information – much of it not available anywhere else. The two Illustrated Instruction issues on Kute-Uchi are especially important, as there is so little information about kute-uchi available anywhere else, outside of Masako Kinoshita’s very hard-to-find and expensive book on it, which is almost entirely in Japanese.
Also important are all the reports of worldwide loop braiding traditions, both current and historic, that Ms. Kinoshita wrote or compiled on L-MBRIC, for example Keiko Kusakabe’s discovery and reports of very complex fingerloop braiding in Sulawesi, Indonesia; the Guajiro / Wayuu braiding of South America, translated from an ethnographic paper in Spanish; and Mari Omura’s reports on her detailed research into ancient Chinese, Japanese and Korean loop braiding. These are not available in English anywhere else, in print or on-line.*see note
Even many of the articles on European loop braiding contain information that is hard to find anywhere else, along with references to the often obscure sources.
The guide above is my personal index to L-M BRIC and its associated Illustrated Instruction Series. I started it when the original website was still active, because originally it had no index of its own, just a list of links on the homepage to Issue 1, Issue 2, etc, with no indication as to what articles were contained in each issue. I created this index so I would have some way of knowing what was inside each of the issues.
My guide lists the issues in chronological order, and briefly summarizes the articles in each issue. Individual articles don’t have their own links, you click on a link to the whole issue, then scroll down to find the article you want.
After each L-MBRIC issue, my guide gives the link to the Illustrated Instruction issue associated with it. Two very important Illustrated Instruction issues have no clear connection to any particular LMBRIC issue. In view of their importance, my guide lists them first – that is, following my link to LMBRIC’s home page, and before Issue #1.
*Mari Omura does have 2 papers in English on her historical and archeological research on Asian loop braids in the Proceedings books from the first two international BRAIDS conferences: Space, Time and Braid (2007), and Threads That Move (2012). Check with the Braid Society in England, and Braiders Hand in the U.S.
Here is a link to some details about one of her studies (in Japanese)
(English title) Basic study of the appearance and transmission of braiding techniques in ancient Asia, 2015
(In Japanese) 古代アジアにおける組紐製作技法の発生と伝播に関する基礎調査
Study citation info
*You can also directly use any expired/ “broken” link in my blog (to any site, not just LBRIC) to access an archived version of that expired webpage on the Internet Archive:
Copy the link, go to the Internet Archive’s search engine – the Wayback Machine,
Paste the link into the search box, hit ‘Enter’.
A calendar will come up, with a blue dot on the dates that page was saved to the Internet Archive. Hover over a blue dot, then click the link that pops up. After a brief pause the archived webpage will appear. (don’t choose dates that are anomalously recent – those will go to ‘pirated’ versions of that URL, ones that scammers took over after the original site expired)
Last updated June 1, 2024
© 2016-2024 Ingrid Crickmore
Loop Braiding 