In October, I invited some fellow business owners who make things using shuttle looms to visit the Netherlands.
The purpose of the trip was to visit the Textile Museum in Tilburg, southern Netherlands, and to inspect the "Textile Lab" located within the museum.

The participants were Takeyari from Kurashiki Canvas, Yamazaki from Aizu Cotton, Narita from the Toyota Commemorative Museum of Industry and Technology, textile designer Kusuno, Haga from Toyohashi, and myself.



Tilburg, where the museum is located, is the sixth largest city in the Netherlands and is located just a little over an hour's drive from the capital, Amsterdam.
The city flourished as a woolen textile production center, peaking in the 1950s and 1960s.
There were 13 woolen and cotton textile factories, but as time passed, work shifted to China and the industry rapidly declined. All of the factories closed down, so it's clear that the situation was similar to that in Japan.

The textile museum was established in the former site of the abandoned factory, and I was deeply inspired when I visited the "Textile Lab" inside.

As the name suggests, this is a laboratory where fabrics can be developed in small batches. Using textile machines collected from the surrounding area, and under the guidance of experts, you can create the fabric you want.

The museum displays rare traditional looms that were once in use, allowing visitors to learn about the evolution of weaving technology, but many of the machines installed in the lab are relatively new and connected to computers.



There's more to this place than just machines: designers, artists, students, and "new faces" from different industries and fields outside the textile industry are all working on experiments to develop and commercialize fabrics.

In addition to fabric-making professionals such as artisans and designers, the lab also has interns who are university students majoring in textiles, so the workforce is diverse in age.

Even those without expertise are free to develop and commercialize new textiles, but they must first undergo a laboratory review and submit a report outlining their ideas and objectives regarding what they want to create.
The lab welcomes anyone with a clear sense of purpose and motivation to develop new products.

Regarding the fabrics to be produced, the idea is "only prototypes, no need for mass production."
We can only produce prototypes up to about 200 meters of fabric, and we have a policy of not taking on any more than that.
It is not a place for mass production, but rather a place for experiments.





Rather than mass-producing, we specialize in creating unique products.
The lab is open to anyone who visits with a specific purpose, and by interacting with the "new people" in the lab, it acts as a testing ground for those aspiring to become creators to grow.

Not only can visitors take a tour, but by experiencing manufacturing here, they can meet new people and make connections that lead to new manufacturing.

As we work to shape the future of Japanese manufacturing and create new systems for it, we have gained a great deal of inspiration and inspiration from the efforts of the Dutch textile lab.

(Anything Nishimura)