25.

Silk and Cotton Trade Between Modern Japan & British India

1. Silk has fascinated people for centuries, both as a product and a business. It
is said that the Chinese empress Leizu discovered silk in 2700 BC when she
accidentally dropped a silk cocoon from a mulberry tree into hot water. Soon she
discovered that she could pull out a silk thread from the cocoon. She got the idea to
weave it. Silk arrived in Japan through Korea in the fourth century and was turned
into something entirely new through a weaving process in Kyoto in the nineteenth
century. Silk was woven into textiles in the Nishijin district of Kyoto and came to
be known as Nishiijin ori or Nishijin textiles. There are four types of silk used
across the world—mulberry silk, eri silk, tussar silk, and muga silk.

2. About ninety percent of the quality silk in the world comes from mulberry
silkworms. Mulberry is used in Japan as it creates the softest fabric. The name
Nishijin comes from Kyoto district, but it no longer exists. Nishijin has been
replaced by Kamigyo and Kita wards. But Nishijin brocade was of high quality and
was traditionally used to make kimono fabric, obi, wallets, purses, costume
for Noh theater and festival decorations. One company that has made Nishijin
brocade textiles since the Meiji Restoration is called Tatsumura Textile. It created
products for Emperor Hirohito and are still quality weavers of Nishijin ori.

3. Japanese climate is ideally suited to seri culture, silk-reeling, and weaving

which creates different varieties of silk. The silk made in East Asia declined as it
was smuggled from China to the Byzantine Empire. Between the 1890s and the
1930s, Japanese silk exports grew exponentially, making Japan the largest silk
exporter in the world. Silk fabric was not only woven but also painted with colorful
patterns and later dyed. This technique is called Kyo-yuzen was used for kimono
and is done by hand. The first yuzen artist was Miyazaki Yuzen Sai, after whose
name the technique was named. The second technique of Japanese silk production
is called chiremen or flat woven silk called silk crepe. The crepe silk is quite
durable and can be dyed many times. The raw silk wefts are twisted 3,000 to 4,000
times, then opened and compressed to give it a bouncy texture. This technique is
known as shibo. Again, the Tango region of Kyoto produces the best chirimen.

4. In the early twentieth century, Indian merchants got involved with the silk
trade in Yokohama and made it flourish. Different Indian religious and ethnic

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groups came from India which included the Muslims, Parsees and Gujaratis to
Sikhs and Sindhis. But it was the Sindhis, called Sindworkies, who succeeded due
to their ingenuity and hard work. Most Japanese traders who did business with
Indians felt that they were prompt in payment and had a vast network of business
relationships, which became quite useful. During the Great Kanto Earthquake of
1923, 28 Indian silk merchants lost their lives. A memorial fountain was
constructed at Yamashita Park where Chandru Advani together with the
Yokohama municipal government organized a memorial service every year.

5. Abdul Jaffa Kaza was one of the early Indian Muslims in establishing the
Indian silk trade community in Yokohama. He came to Kyushu Nagasaki Japan,
from Pondicherry India, in 1886 as a stowaway on a French frigate, was discovered
by the French captain en-route, and made to work as a cabin attendant to earn his
passage. Since this was his first visit to a foreign country, he had no awareness of
the world outside India. When the ship reached the port city of Nagasaki he was
fascinated by its hustle and bustle and felt a primordial attraction to it. He returned
again five years later, got married to a Japanese woman named Koto Kumazawa,
and unbeknownst to him, laid the foundation of the Indian expatriate community in
Japan. Japanese books written in the Meiji era on the history of the silk trade in
Yokohama refer to him as Kumazawa Inpuresu in katakana after the family he
married into and the ship he sailed in. Inpuresu was the corruption of Empress, and
the ship was Empress Queen Victoria. However, his family believes Kumazawa
Inpuresu was the katakana spelling of his company’s name.

6. Abdul Kaza was born in Pondicherry to a Sunni Muslim family from

Madras in September 1867. He grew up in the early colonial period of India
when the French, British and the Portuguese were vying with each other for
territorial domination by strengthening their maritime power. His imagination
roamed across east and south Asia, places where these European powers were both
trading and colonizing. But his family was relatively poor. His father worked as an
overseer, supplying native Indians to work on ships. It is not clear if Kaza’s
ancestors originally came from Turkey as he wore a Turkish fez and his name
means a small administrative district in Turkey, being a subdivision of a sanjak.
According to his granddaughter Amina, Kaza was often critical of the ways of the
Sunnis in Japan, and through that she assumes he was a Shia. Also, in many of the
pictures, Kaza wore a Turkish fez hat, typical of an Ashraf Muslim. Abdul’s

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mother died when he was a small boy and his father married, remarried with a
woman by the name of Amin-bi. Amin-bi gave birth to a girl and she began to
think more about her than about her foster son Abdul. Abdul, therefore, got little or
no money from his parents. Though he grew up in poverty and had no money, he
always desired to see foreign lands. He was given to mischief, and occasionally
stole money from the mosque; but before he stole money, he sought God’s
forgiveness. Given these circumstances, it was natural for him to hide in a French
trading vessel bound for the Far East.

7. During his first visit to Japan, he became fascinated with the people and
their customs. Though he returned, his fondness for Japan began to grow. He
became enamored with the idea of marrying a Japanese lady, not just finding
a rashamen, as many foreigners did. Rashamen were Japanese women who
accompanied foreigners. When he turned 24, he had an opportunity to sail to Japan
once again. During his second visit he requested a member of the Kanagawa
prefectural assembly to find a match for him. He was introduced to Koto
Kumazawa, to whom he got married. The couple had seven children. Kaza passed
away on 5th January 1949 at the age of 81. Relocated at O-badai Reien, a tomb for
Kumazawa family. A religious man, he went to Yoyogi Uehara mosque to pray
every Friday. He spoke Urdu or Hindustani at home and his granddaughter Amina
recalls that when they would ask for money he would say “paisa nahin hai” and
then give them some. He grew a beard in 1939 when he was around seventy-one
years old. He liked to wear the kimono and sit with his legs tucked under.
8. Yokohama was the only silk-exporting port of Japan but lost its significance
after 1923. The Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 brought extensive damage to both
lives and infrastructure. Since it was impossible to do business from Yokohama,
the silk market with its 400 silk traders relocated to Kobe. Kobe and Yokohama
saw a complete reversal of their functions as exporting ports from Japan. Great
effort was put into the reconstruction and recovery of Yokohama. However, the
havoc caused by the earthquake was so huge that the total amount of silk exports
fell drastically. Between 1917-28 silk exports averaged between 125 to 129 million
yen, but from 1929-37 it decreased dramatically. Another reason was the separation
of artificial silk or rayon from silk textiles. The world market too, faced stagnation
due to the economic crash of 1930. There was a shift to the manufacture of
munitions for the war and this led to restrictions in producing consumer goods
inside Japan. To add to the woes of the silk industry, western countries imposed
high duty on silk textiles to protect their trade. Once the First World War ended,

3
western munition industries converted to peace-time industries giving a new
incentive to western silk textiles at the expense of Japanese silk. Depressed
business of Japanese silk led to a decline in quality in foreign markets and foreign
traders refused to deal in Japanese silk textiles.

9. During the early twentieth century (1926-29) Japanese silk textile export
market was in Australia, the US, India, Canada, the UK, and France. Japan
exported 29-million-yen worth of silk textiles to Australia, 19 to the US, 16 to
India, Canada 12, the UK 12 and France 8.5. During the Sino-Japanese War,
exports to these countries decreased. During this period export to India was 16
million and Australia a decrease. During the 1930-37 period, India became number
one importer of Japanese silk at 12 million yen a year.

10. The silk textiles in India during this time were largely exported from
Japan, China exporting only a little. The export of artificial silk to India was
entirely from Japan. In actual terms, 97 million yards of the total 99 million yards
of artificial silk exported to India were from Japan. Of the silk textiles exported
from Japan silk crape was first. This was followed by Fuji silk, which was about 20
percent, and habutae (a feather two-layer weave used for shirt lining) about 10
percent. Other products such as satin, chiffon, silk pongee, amber and poplin were
also exported but in lesser amounts.

11. In March 1928, the British India government increased import duty on
artificial silk from 1.5 percent to 3 percent. The Yokohama Silk Trade
Associations discussed remedial measures and lobbied the government against
such an increase. In 1932 four Indian Trading Houses in Yokohama requested Silk
Trade Association and Silk Association for cheaper rent, as they could not make
enough profit in silk and other products and were tempted to move to Kobe. A
Trade Promotion Committee for India was established under the president ship of
Sadajiro Eguchi. It was decided to reduce the fare to half, especially for goods sent
by railway trains for loading at Kobe.

12. Rayon trade also saw minor changes before and after the war. Before the
war British India imported 32 million worth of rayon, Australia 16, Dutch East
India Company 11. A considerable amount of rayon was also exported to the
Philippines. South Africa, New Zealand, and Egypt. After the war delays took
place in signing commercial treaties with Japan due to new political alignments
and nationalist movements in countries such as Middle East and Africa. The major
exporting countries that emerged were Indonesia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Nigeria,
South Vietnam, Afghanistan, South Africa, the Philippines, Sudan, Gold Coast,
4
India, and Kuwait. There was a decrease in the amount exported to India and
Pakistan due to the partition movement and decrease with Australia due to changes
in its economic policies.

13. During World War II the assets of all foreign traders were frozen. They
were detained or repatriated as enemy subjects except those from Axis powers.
However, Indian traders were designated as belonging to a friendly nation-state
and their assets were not frozen. Moreover, some of the Indians had joined the
Indian Independence Movement under Subhash Chandra Bose and fought on the
front lines. But as the war intensified both Japanese and foreign importing
companies could not do business. Most of the trading houses in Yamashita-cho
were rented out or handed over to the munitions industry. About twenty Indian
traders began to live in the house of Indian trader Kimatraj. The Silk Center paid
off the loan from sales to the Ministry of Finance and Yokohama City and
dissolved. On May 29th, 1945, there was a massive air raid on Yokohama causing
large scale destruction of the city. The Silk Trade Center lost its last president
Yoshikata Nishida. Most Indians were left homeless and without food or shelter.
Many of the Indian managers from Waliram. Kishinchand, Rijmal, Utomal,
Chainary and Utmal were taken in by Shinjiro Yasuda and given shelter and food.

14. After the war, Yokohama was seized by the US Occupation Forces. They
occupied airfields and places like the shopping area, Isesaki-cho, Honmaki
seashore and Nissen huts. All procedures for trade needed the permission of
the GHQ located in Tokyo or the trade commission. As telephone connections were
slow and limited, most Japanese trading companies conducted business
negotiations from Tokyo hotels. To address the shortage of equipment in stores
Nihon Kengyo Soko Kabushiki Gaisha (Japan Silk Industry Storage & Co. Ltd was
established by Shinjiro Kamei. The Seni Boeki Kodan or Textile Public
Corporation of Textile and Trade was collecting frozen silk textiles in Yokohama.
When a branch of Mitsui Bussan was getting dissolved as a zaibatsu, it bought
the storage disposed by Misui Bussan and diverted the silk textiles for private use
to rebuild Yokohama silk trade.

15. In 1949, Yokohama City organized the Trade Exhibition to show its resolve
to rebuild the trade. As the Indian Trading Houses knew how to recover after an
earthquake, they were asked by Kanagawa Textile Cooperative Association and
Yokohama Fiber Export Association to show the way. The Indian traders were
staying in Tomikuni building in Hibya to conduct silk trade. Staying at a hotel was
not easy. They asked the mayor of Yokohama Kyoichi Ishikawa, to solve their
problem. Ishikawa got a budget bill passed for foreign trading houses to establish a
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place to stay in Yokohama. At first 8 two-story structures were built at a cost of
5.35 million yen each and were completed in 1954. After a grand celebration of
their opening on 25th October 1954, trading companies like Lokmal, Satyaramdath
and Company, Dharamal Father and Son and Company, Kishinchand, Cheralam
and Company Rachman L Monani and Company, Halchandraj and Company,
Dayaram Father and Son Company and Kewaram Corporation moved in. It got
support from Kanagawa Prefecture and established five more buildings in its
second project and 8 buildings in its third project. So a total of twenty Indian
Trading Houses were accommodated.

16. Can silk weaving once a great business venture, be revived? There is still
hope. Amane Tatsumura, is a fourth-generation brocade master and weaver of
Nishiki silk from Kyoto who has kept alive the rare art of silk weaving. Nishiki
fabric gives a three-dimensional effect as it is woven in layers. He visited the
eleventh century city of Benares a few years ago, a city famous for its Banarsi silk
sarees and fine silk garments. Nishiki is woven on takabata looms introduced about
one thousand two hundred years ago from China. It requires high precision in
weaving the fabric and can easily be distinguished from ordinary brocade giving it
its distinctive name nishiki. The ideographic character for nishiki is a combination
of the symbol for gold symbolizing its high value. Amane wants to promote the art
to India.

17. The cotton industry was the first modern industry established in Japan
during the late nineteenth century. Cotton production in Japan declined in the
1880s due to poor quality and high cost. In 1899, the Japanese government and the
textile industry sent a joint mission to India to facilitate the import of raw Indian
cotton for the Japanese mills. India has excellent production and begins to supply
raw cotton to Japan. Japan began to develop its shipping lines to support its
industrial growth, but the British offered their resistance. In 1891 R.D. Tata whom
the Japanese mission had met in India, came to Japan to discuss the shipment of
raw cotton from Bombay to Kobe. During this time the Bombay-Kobe route was
controlled by the Shipping Conference whose leading members were Peninsular
and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, Austrian Lloyd, and Navigazione
Generale Italiana in Asia. The Conference charged a freight rate of 17 rupees per
ton. In 1893, another member of the Tata family, J. N. Tata visited Japan to break
the hold of the Conference over cotton shipment by charging a lower rate. It was
agreed upon that Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha or NYK, the biggest Japanese
shipping company, would supply half the ships and Tata family the other half.
NYK and Tata agreed to ship 50,000 tons of raw cotton annually at 17 rupees a ton
in return for a loyalty rebate of 4 rupees. The rate war caused heavy loss to Tata,
6
who withdrew from service in February 1895. NYK also suffered loses. It further
had to divert shipping business as Japan waged a war with China in August 1894
called the Sino-Japanese War. When the war ended in Japanese victory in April
1895, the Japanese government received compensation but kept the subsidy
awarded to NYK.

18. The Japanese continued the rate war with the British involved in the
Indian shipping business. The Japanese government offered to subsidize NYK
for twenty years to provide a service to India that benefited the Japanese textile
industry. The arrival of the First World War changed the relationship between
Britain and India. As raw material and other supplies were diverted to the war
effort, Indians demanded more autonomy. In 1917 the Secretary of State E. S.
Montague announced that India would gradually be granted independence. The
war increased Indian industrial production and created more import substitution.
The British share of India’s total imports fell and India’s domestic production
replaced British manufacturers. In the early 1930s British government tried to
protect the Lancashire textile industry. The Indian nationalists founded the Reserve
Bank of India to manage monetary policy. India began to reduce military
contributions and the nationalists tried to weaken the role of British shipping lines.