Kansei evaluation of tactile response to new leather textile made using the nishijin-ori technique

Abstract

Nishijin-ori is a traditional yarn-dyed fabric of the Nishijin district in Kyoto, Japan. Since 1975, the number of Nishijn-ori companies, looms, employees, and total shipments has been shrinking. To generate new demand, a dramatic shift towards delivering value-added fabric products is required. The Nishijin district is renowned for its traditional technique called hikibaku, whereby Japanese washi paper is cut to a thickness of about 0.2 to 0.3 mm, and woven with the yarn in a weft direction. We applied this hikibaku technique to develop a fabric that incorporates cut leather instead of washi paper. The purpose of this study is to clarify the texture and physical properties of the new leather-silk woven hikibaku-leather fabric and demonstrate its advantages to pure cowhide. A questionnaire on tactile sensations was conducted on 26 men and women to determine the perceived texture of the fabric. Physical properties relating to the tactile sensation were then measured and compared with the questionnaire results. In order to obtain a guideline for the direction of future textile development that matches the assumed user's sensibilities, we first verified the correlation between the factor scores extracted from the Kansei (subjective response) evaluation, and the physical properties of the textiles. Next, we discerned the physical properties that should be focused on for each of the extracted factors and clarified the newly developed textile material in the extracted factor space.