About kumihimo

Kumihimo is a method of braiding and/or weaving cord that dates to approximately the 8th century (Nara era) in Japan. The Shoso-in treasure collection at Todai-ji in Nara has hundreds of silk garments and accessories, including kumihimo weavings.

There isn't a lot in English about historic kumihimo examples. Catherine Martin in the UK is one of the few English-speaking specialists in the art, and she's written a really wonderful book called Kumihimo: Japanese Silk Braiding Techniques that combines both historical notes and hands-on step-by-step processes. Jacqui Carey's book Beginner's Guide to Braiding: The craft of Kumihimo (and its update Japanese Braiding) is more aimed for a modern crafter than a historical recreation aficionado, though her book is easier to find and has more color illustrations.

Useful English-language kumihimo resources

• Kumihimo: Japanese Silk Braiding Techniques (Catherine Martin)
• http://www.kumihimocompanion.com/ - site with lots of examples of completed braids and patterning tools
• http://www.braidershand.com/ - formal materials and supplies. A real marudai is likely to cost over $100.
• I've come up with a way to use a round wooden disc and wooden bobbins to produce a surface the same working size as a marudai for just $10 in materials.
• YouTube video of kumihimo demonstration on a marudai (10 minutes)
  

Kumihimo and trollen / trelleborg braiding

I first learned kumihimo's kongo-gumi pattern in the context of Viking reenactors who worked with a hand-held disk rather than a marudai and silk. I don't remember for certain what Gillian told me she'd learned the technique's name to be, but I have about 6 feet of sturdy brown and green cord that I made under the tutelage of an enthusiastic Norse reenactor whom I don't think had heard anything about marudai or kumihimo from Japan. When in 2013 I realized that the reasons the movements of kongo-gumi felt so familiar was because I'd learned them 20 years ago in another context entirely, I tried to find what the connections might be.

Braiding tool or astrolabe?

In the 1990s in the UK, the Viking reenactors at the Norse Film and Pageant society accepted these kinds of braids as historical for their purposes; in the years since, there's been an ongoing debate over whether the wheel method was used in period, whether extant examples were created through fingerbraiding, and so forth. One group considered an object a braiding tool and another group considered it a navigational aid.

Disc braiding vs. marudai braiding

The hand-held notched disk method of making a braid is much more practical for fitting in around housework or campwork (or several hours of car travel) than a marudai, because you don't need the weights and the careful arrangement; the notches will hold the threads in place for you.

From one perspective, this makes a much more portable "kumihimo" kit, because you can produce identical structures with only one hand.

From another perspective, having done both methods, I really don't know if I'd consider the disc method an actual "kumihimo-learning" method or not. Because one hand is always occupied with the disc, you never learn the two-handed patterns that make kumihimo braids much easier to memorize.

In addition, the pattern that's easiest to do with a one-handed disc -- the kongo-gumi braid I first learned on a Viking reenactor site with a different name entirely -- is one that doesn't match the usual kumihimo patterns.

Catherine Martin says on page 74 of Kumihimo: Japanese Silk Braiding Techniques that "it does not strictly speaking belong to the group of braids defined as kumihimo according to analysts in Japan."

Her example uses eight strands because the Japanese braids work in multiples of 4, but I learned the motions with six strands in the UK and the same thread-movement pattern worked there.

Phiala's page discussing medieval braid types includes a mention of the bobbin-based braiding method; the four-strand bobbin-based braid is also the same "cross the center" movement set used by eight-strand kongo gumi and the six-strand pattern I learned with a notched disc.

In the end, I think whether or not to use a disc depends on whether your goal is to work with medieval-compatible tools or to produce medieval-compatible products. I know my inkle loom and tablet loom aren't period in design, but they make the process of tablet weaving (which is period) much easier.

Likewise, round braids of the type produced by kongo-gumi, bobbin braiding, and "Viking combat braiding" do exist in period; whether the disk found in that archaeological dig was a braiding wheel or an astrolabe, the undocumentable tool makes it easier for me to produce the documentable round braids. Your mileage may vary.