An old Japanese hand-held loop braiding technique that grew out of, and continued alongside finger loop braiding, as a method for braiding larger and more intricate braids. Preceded and for a time overlapped with Kumihimo done on braiding stands (dai). Up until the 1990’s, surviving examples of these intricate braids were assumed to have been made on braiding stands like modern kumihimo braids. In the 1990’s Masako Kinoshita discovered that all the older (pre-18th C) multi-strand Japanese braids had in fact been made by hand-held loop braiding – the larger ones by teams of braiders working together on a single braid.
Update: Now with videos!!!! This Kute-Uchi site now has videos and tips on how to organize and handle hand-held loops in making traditional Japanese braids, including how to deal with large numbers of loops!
Fumiyo Kitahara’s Kumihimo with Loops (in Japanese and English).
I’ve been trying to reproduce a Japanese national treasure braid known as the Itsukushima braid. It’s described in Masako Kinoshita’s big book on Kute-Uchi: 日本組紐古技法の研究 (Study of Archaic Braiding Techniques in Japan). This is a work-in-progress…
Buried textiles rarely survive even a few hundred years.
But in sites in and around what is now Peru, treasure troves of amazing textiles have been found that are thousands of years old—including beautiful and intricate loop braids!
Ok, here goes with Part 2… This is about the kute-uchi loop braiding day in Joy Boutrup’s class at Braids 2012. (Her first day was on European finger loop braids.) Her class covered so much that it was like a feast…
Loop braiding highlights at the conference: Two different 2-day loop braiding workshops, plus a report from Mari Omura on loop braiding archeological evidence in Asia going back thousands of years B.C! Joy Boutrup’s 1st day of class included several unusual European loop braids that she has discovered through analyzing museum specimens—braids that are not known from any of the 15th or 17th C. loop braiding manuscripts…
Just a note to say that I’ve added text instructions for the Genji-Uchi braid to last year’s Kute-Uchi tutorial. I also want to plug Cindy Myer’s pages on Medieval fingerloop braids — this is an incredible resource! She’s analyzed the braid instructions of 3 different source manuscripts, and made beautiful reproductions of almost all of them. These are displayed in a chart with links to her very clear text instructions for each braid…
The Japanese hand-held loop braiding technique that preceded kumihimo and produced incredibly complex and gorgeous braids–some more complex than are even possible to make easily on braiding stands! Two videos teaching the two most basic moves for making square and flat braids, and text instructions for a more complex braid that requires using both moves.
This is an incredible finger loop braid from the 14th Century! It’s only known from a single museum artifact somewhat older than the 15th C. loop braiding manuscripts. This braid is amazingly similar to a Japanese kute-uchi braid that was made by a completely different method…
Loop Braiding 