In Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlocked, Janet Arnold, in one of her rare moments of sloppy scholarship, stated that the cords used as points may have been made using the same technique as Japanese kumihimo. I suspect she must have had some basis for believing this. I also have an 1849 copy of Godey's Lady book that contains an article on making jewelry out of braided hair, and the apparatus shown is exactly like a marudai, the braiding stand used to do kumihimo. However, at the time Japan had been closed to almost all foreign commerce for two centuries, and would remain so until 1854.
I suspect that these two bits of information may mean that there was a marudai type of tool in use in the Western world, that may have been brought to Europe before Japan closed its ports. It could be a fascinating topic for research.
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regna
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Date: 2009-03-13 07:15 pm (UTC)I suspect that these two bits of information may mean that there was a marudai type of tool in use in the Western world, that may have been brought to Europe before Japan closed its ports. It could be a fascinating topic for research.