@mysecret02 suggested kumihimo when I was whinging about wanting a hobby, and I've finally had time to start looking into it (read the wikipedia page)
With its literal translation/meaning of 'gathered threads', it is an ancient Japanese artform, ranging across means and significance throughout Japanese history.
The first records of anything similar date back to the Jomon period, when what is now Japan was occupied by a hunter-gatherer societies, and the threads were braided and pressed into unfired pottery to add patterns to the clay before they dried.
Kumihimo as it is properly recognised first came to Japan from China, initially used to adorn Buddhist scrolls and other religious items.
Japanese kumihimo came into its own after the trade routes with China faded out, and previous techniques were merged to create an individual practice, rather than the Chinese-taught version, becoming increasingly complex. This was when it began to be used to adorn samurai armour, and tie harnesses around the samurai's waist for their sword.
Moving forward in time, weavers developed a technique known for the gradual colour gradient throughout the piece. Onward again, and with the growing presence of wabi-sabi ideas, striped patterns came into practice, along with it being used to decorate teaware used in tea ceremonies. Onward again, and family emblems could be included, with the use of two distinct colours.
Onwards, guess what, again, and with increasing peace in Japanese societies, swords, in some contexts, became decorative, and kumihimo was key in decorating them for display, with frames being developed to assist in the range of kumihimo techniques available, and became more accessible across class differences, as fashion, and eventually decorative kumihimo variants specialised into being used on the obi (the belt for a kimono), able to include complex patterns and even characters into the kumihimo weave.
After the disappearance of the samurai regiment/class (what do I call it?), and the need for swords became obsolete, it remained all but entirely to decorate the obi.
Coming into the 20th and 21st centuries, in addition to retaining it's now-traditional use in the obi, has become decorative once, more, expanding out of Japan, including the establishment of kumihomo societies in foreign counties to oversee the craft.
This is so cool. Now I just have to look into whether I can actually do it or not, and whether buying these frames will bankrupt me...
