Ae Handkerchief

Ae Handkerchief and Its Six Registered Buildings

Ae Handkerchief (阿江ハンカチーフ, Ae Hankachīfu) is a textile mill at 593-3 Yasui, Shimotakino, Kato City, Hyogo Prefecture, whose six buildings, dating from 1911 to about 1955 (the former factory, two cloth inspection sheds, the former product warehouse, the former dormitory and the former dining hall), were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on June 28, 2017.

All six were entered in the 87th round of registrations as consecutive Nos. 28-0666 to 28-0671, and all on the same ground: buildings that contribute to the historic landscape. The owner is Ae Handkerchief Co., Ltd. On the same day, the two main-house wings and the inner storehouse of the neighbouring Ae Family Residence to the east were also added to the register of Registered Tangible Cultural Properties.

The buildings fall into three periods. The former factory and Cloth Inspection Shed No. 1 date from 1911, built when power looms arrived, and both were altered around 1987. The former product warehouse followed around 1948, and Cloth Inspection Shed No. 2, the dormitory and the dining hall around 1955. The order in which a Meiji-era mill gained postwar storage and staff housing can still be read on the site.

The History of Ae Handkerchief and Banshu-ori

According to the company's own profile, Ae Handkerchief began in the first years of the Meiji era, when Ae Umezō started weaving on the present site as a private business. It became Ae Shokufu Kōjō Co. in 1948, was renamed Ae Shokufu Co. in 1965, and took its present name, Ae Handkerchief Co., Ltd., in 1970.

The cloth it weaves is Banshū-ori, a cotton textile made for more than 200 years in northern Harima around Nishiwaki. As the company explains, its defining feature is yarn-dyeing: the threads are dyed before weaving, and the pattern comes from how the coloured yarns are laid out on the loom. Today Ae Handkerchief uses the technique for handkerchiefs and a range of other fabrics.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes the former factory as built for the introduction of power looms. A Meiji mill from that moment survives on the grounds of a company that has kept weaving in the same place under several names, and the company notes that it still owns and runs an old power loom.

How the Six Buildings Are Arranged

The Agency divides the Ae Handkerchief premises into a western and an eastern plot. Pieced together, its notes place the six buildings like this:

• Western plot: the former factory faces west, with Cloth Inspection Shed No. 1 to its northwest
• East side of the western plot: a gate opens in the middle, and Cloth Inspection Shed No. 2 stands just north of it, facing south
• North of Shed No. 2: the former dormitory runs north to south, and the former dining hall, running east to west, stands to its northwest
• Eastern plot: the former product warehouse occupies the northwest corner, fronting the road

By building area, the factory covers 451 square meters, Shed No. 1 347, the dormitory 143, the dining hall 66, the warehouse 64 and Shed No. 2 just 34. The two Meiji buildings account for 798 of the 1,105 square meters, more than 70 percent.

Between them the six buildings cover a whole working mill: where cloth was woven, where it was checked for flaws, where finished goods were stored, and where workers slept and ate. Ae Handkerchief keeps a complete set, from production to daily life.

Visiting Ae Handkerchief

Ae Handkerchief is a working textile company, and its website says nothing about factory tours. Kato City's heritage pages mark each building as open to the public but give no dates, hours or booking method. If you hope to enter the premises or see inside, contact Ae Handkerchief Co., Ltd. (phone 0795-48-2031) or the cultural properties section of the Kato City Board of Education (phone 0795-48-3046) in advance.

Without an arrangement, view the buildings from the road only. This is an operating mill, so please do not walk onto the premises or take photographs that get in the way of work.

The company gives the walk from Takino Station on the JR Kakogawa Line as about 10 minutes, and the drive from the Takino-Yashiro interchange of the Chugoku Expressway as about 2 minutes. No visitor parking is advertised.