大学共同利用機関法人 人間文化研究機構　国立民族学博物館

Objectives

Based on a paper by joint research organizer YOSHIMOTO Shinobu published in 1987 in the Bulletin of the National Museum of Ethnology (Volume 12, No. 2) entitled “Principles for the Basic Classification of Handlooms,” Yoshimoto and the other participants intend to take as their object of study handlooms previously used throughout the world and the textiles woven on the handlooms to shed light on the cross-cultural and historical development of weaving technologies and their position as a core technology in the history of humankind. Another major goal will be to clarify the current situation for weaving cultures which are deeply tied into both the industrial and IT revolutions. Furthermore, this joint research will also attempt to describe current conditions in which, as a result of the mechanization and mass production stemming from the industrial and IT revolutions, forms of handiwork cultivated by humankind since ancient times are in danger of extinction, and suggest how, by carefully investigating the core technology of weaving, we can discover the appropriate role for work done with the hands as analog systems in the future digital age.