VOA文化艺术2024--Japan's Kojima Has History of Making Blue Jeans

In the Japanese town of Kojima, the main road is named Jeans Street.

This street is where people from around the world come to visit. The drink machines at the train station have images of jeans on them. The roads are painted blue, with the lines at the edges colored pink and white, the trademark¹ of Kojima jeans' seams.

With about 40 jeans manufacturers and stores, including cafes, the area gets about 100,000 visitors a year, the Japan National Tourism Organization said.

Japanese jeans are often costly², dark and durable³. Although a small part of the global jeans market, Japanese jean makers⁴ have developed a reputation for quality and attention to detail.

Kojima is where popular brands like Big John are made. The city now supplies international clothing brands, including Gucci.

Emma McClendon of St. John's University in New York said that the Japanese industry has not taken a mass marketing⁵ path. Instead, the jean industry pays careful attention to creating quality products that collectors might like.

In Kojima, Jeans Street is small and uncrowded. Each company in the area is small, hiring about 100 people.

What you will find are workers taking pride in "monozukuri," or "making things." The term suggests careful attention to detail.

This idea can be found throughout Japan, from carmakers to the local tofu store.

"More like making a kimono" is the way Yoshiharu Okamoto, a dyeing craftsman⁶ at Kojima-based manufacturer Momotaro Jeans, puts it.

His hands and nails are colored blue from putting threads of cotton into a big container of coloring called dye.

He knows by smell and feel the right state of the indigo⁷ coloring, which he compares to a living thing. He says it is a 365-days-a-year job, as the dye has to be checked and mixed every day.

"It's not that easy to get this special color," Okamoto told the Associated Press recently. "It's my life."

The dark color is so special it has earned the name "Japan blue" or "tokuno blue," meaning "especially concentrated blue."

Jeans made in Kojima are costly. The jeans can cost from $230 per pair to $1,400 or more.

Thomas Stege Bojer is founder⁸ of Denimhunters, an online site for people who like jeans and the cotton material they are made out of - denim⁹.

He says Japanese brands use "raw denim" that ages well and lasts a long time. He pointed¹⁰ to the jeans as part of a movement known as "slow clothing."

The idea is to produce fewer, but higher quality pieces of clothing. The movement came as a reaction to low-cost, mass-produced clothes.

"We just make too many clothes...I think, and we need to slow down," Bojer said from his home near Copenhagen, Denmark.

McClendon said the Japanese industry is "shifting the conversation around jeans to be about heritage elements, about educating consumers on historical details as a form of quality."

Momotaro Jeans, for example, come with a lifetime guarantee. Tears and other problems get fixed¹¹ at no cost, within reason.

Japan Blue Co., which runs Momotaro, a brand that began in 2006, said yearly sales totaled about $11 million for the latest year. About 40 percent of sales come from outside Japan.

Masataka Suzuki, president and chief operating officer at Japan Blue, said the area has a strong industrial history.

In the past, industry centered around sewing heavy materials, including military clothes and obi sashes for kimonos, as well as the cotton and indigo-dyeing native to the area.

The jeans are for life, Suzuki said. The jeans slowly change depending on how they are worn and how the wearer lives.

"We want to create a product that is a testament¹² to a person's life," he said.

Words in This Story

jeans - n. plural¹³ pants usually made of denim

trademark -n. a characteristic or feature firmly associated with a person or thing

seam -n. the joining of two pieces (as of cloth or denim) by sewing usually near the edge

durable -adj. strong and able to last a long time

reputation -n. the opinion that people have of a company or a person

brand -n. a particular kind of product that has a name recognized by a lot of people

kimono -n. a traditional Japanese clothing consisting of a long robe with wide sleeves

dye - v. to impart a new and often permanent color

craftsman -n. a person (especially a man) who is skilled in a craft

concentrated -adj. very dense¹⁴ or thick

conversation -n. a spoken exchange of opinions or ideas

heritage -n. tradition

testament -n. a proof or tribute

1 trademark   

n.商标；特征；vt.注册的…商标

参考例句：

• The trademark is registered on the book of the Patent Office.该商标已在专利局登记注册。
• The trademark of the pen was changed.这钢笔的商标改了。

2 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

3 durable   

adj.持久的，耐久的

参考例句：

• This raincoat is made of very durable material.这件雨衣是用非常耐用的料子做的。
• They frequently require more major durable purchases.他们经常需要购买耐用消费品。

4 makers   

n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式）

参考例句：

• The makers of the product assured us that there had been no sacrifice of quality. 这一产品的制造商向我们保证说他们没有牺牲质量。
• The makers are about to launch out a new product. 制造商们马上要生产一种新产品。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 marketing   

n.行销，在市场的买卖，买东西

参考例句：

• They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
• He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。

6 craftsman   

n.技工，精于一门工艺的匠人

参考例句：

• A cabinet maker must be a master craftsman.家具木工必须是技艺高超的手艺人。
• The craftsman is working up the mass of clay into a toy figure.艺人把一团泥捏成玩具形状。

7 indigo   

n.靛青，靛蓝

参考例句：

• The sky was indigo blue,and a great many stars were shining.天空一片深蓝，闪烁着点点繁星。
• He slipped into an indigo tank.他滑落到蓝靛桶中。

8 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

9 denim   

n.斜纹棉布；斜纹棉布裤，牛仔裤

参考例句：

• She wore pale blue denim shorts and a white denim work shirt.她穿着一条淡蓝色的斜纹粗棉布短裤，一件白粗布工作服上衣。
• Dennis was dressed in denim jeans.丹尼斯穿了一条牛仔裤。

10 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

11 fixed   

adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的

参考例句：

• Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
• Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。

12 testament   

n.遗嘱；证明

参考例句：

• This is his last will and testament.这是他的遗愿和遗嘱。
• It is a testament to the power of political mythology.这说明，编造政治神话可以产生多大的威力。

13 plural   

n.复数；复数形式；adj.复数的

参考例句：

• Most plural nouns in English end in's '.英语的复数名词多以s结尾。
• Here you should use plural pronoun.这里你应该用复数代词。

14 dense   

a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的

参考例句：

• The general ambushed his troops in the dense woods. 将军把部队埋伏在浓密的树林里。
• The path was completely covered by the dense foliage. 小路被树叶厚厚地盖了一层。