Linen’s history in Japan dates back to ancient times. In the Shoso-in Imperial Repository of Nara, which preserves a number of valuable art crafts and cultural articles from the 8th century, some cloth items made of linen are preserved. This provides evidence that linen was already an essential material for people in those days. BAN INOUE uses two types of linen fabrics: choma (ramie) and ama (linen).
Items made with ramie (choma) are produced by the traditional techniques of spinning yarns (teumi) or weaving (teori) by hand with thorough care. Only extremely careful hand-weaving can achieve a brilliant finish without losing the yarns’ natural features.
Linen (ama) items are produced with spun yarns. This type of item, with its pleasantly cooling property, is very easy to wear and care for in daily life.
One of the representative characteristics of linen items is that their uneven surfaces emanate beautiful depth and shading effects.

Hand-woven linen bag using linen yarn dyed with indigo. The tasteful texture of hand-weaving and the deep color of indigo match perfectly.

In olden days, Nara was Japan’s largest mosquito net production area. Traditional mosquito net production techniques have been adjusted for making modern daily clothing. What BAN INOUE wishes to suggest with our clothing items is; easy to wear, comfortable on the skin, and easy to wash at home. The longer you wear, the softer and more comfortable the item becomes.
Colorful daily clothing will adorn your life.
Very airy yet never allows mosquitos to bite you ? this is the technique adapted from mosquito netting.
In those days, people in Japan knew how to sleep comfortably during the hot and humid summer time by using a mosquito net. Stay comfortable and enjoy our clothing items for everyday life that were born from the wisdom of Japan.