Article:

At the time of the Meiji crisis, the Japanese textile industry had been utilising techniques derived from Western technology and promoting its export industry. Textile industry has played an important role in Japan’s emergence onto the international stage as a major modern industrial power. Nishimura Sozaemon’s family has a long history as a Japanese textile wholesaler and even now operate under the name Chiso Co. Ltd. It has exhibited artistic embroidery and yuzen-dyeing textiles both domestically and internationally. Nishimura Sozaemon combined textile products with the traditional Japanese paintings of Kishi Chikudo, Imao Keinen, and others. He aspired not only to promote the textile industry but also to demonstrate the high standards of Japanese textile quality as an art and to display Japanese pride on the world stage.