Born in 1991 in Nibutani, Biratori Town, Hokkaido.
She grew up watching the weaving of her grandmother, Kaizawa Yukiko, a craftsperson of attus (※1) weaving.
Since childhood, alongside Ainu cuisine, she has learned how to make threads for attus weaving, as well as kaeka, bracelets made from attus materials.
When her mother passed away in 2019, she decided to carry on this traditional craft from her grandmother, learning attus weaving directly at her side.

Her main works include 8-sun obi for Japanese kimono made fromattus, as well as bracelets, necklaces, and straps crafted from kaeka, threads twisted from ohyo (Hokkaido elm).
Along with weaving, she also learns plant-dyeing of attus threads from Kaizawa Yukiko.
Together with her grandmother, she collects various plants and trees from the mountains to use as dye materials.
For each type of plant, the process from gathering to dyeing takes a whole day, requiring both time and patience.

What she values most in her work is dyeing natural materials with natural dyes.
She never uses chemical dyes.
Attus dyed with natural materials develops a deeper, richer color as time passes, which is part of its charm.
She uses a variety of dyeing materials such as walnut, mugwort, sappanwood, and logwood.
Since attus is made from tree bark, its dyeing process differs from that of cotton, requiring experimentation with each material.
She constantly explores new possibilities by combining mordants with wild plants close at hand, even ones that are unnamed and that her grandmother has never used for dyeing.

She is learning from her grandmother "Nibutani Attus", which has been passed down for generations, and aims to preserve it in Nibutani in the future.

A member of the Nibutani Craft Association.

Note:
※1 Attus is a traditional Ainu textile, plain-woven from fibers extracted from the inner bark of trees such as the Japanese elm Ohyo (Ulmus laciniata, also known as lobed elm), as well as the garments made from it. Nibutani Attus, woven using traditional techniques handed down in the Nibutani region of Biratori, is a designated Traditional Craft Product of Japan. Nibutani Attus is a special brand that can only be called as such when created only by specially recognized weavers.

Contact Information

Yukiko no Mise (Yukiko’s Shop)
76-7 Nibutani, Biratori-cho, Saru-gun, Hokkaido 055-0101, Japan
TEL (International): +81-90-6217-8449（katak×bee）