{"id":1148,"date":"2025-03-17T15:50:22","date_gmt":"2025-03-17T19:50:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/living.okinawa.halekulani.com\/?p=1148"},"modified":"2025-10-09T18:09:50","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T22:09:50","slug":"%e5%ad%98%e5%9c%a8%e3%82%92%e7%b9%94%e3%82%8b%e7%b3%b8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/living.okinawa.halekulani.com\/en\/%e5%ad%98%e5%9c%a8%e3%82%92%e7%b9%94%e3%82%8b%e7%b3%b8\/","title":{"rendered":"Fibers of Being"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Thunder rolls overhead as Nao Taira makes her way to the largest of her family\u2019s bash\u014d (wild plantain) fields in the northern Okinawan village of Ogimi. A sh\u012bgu\u2014a small knife used to strip plant stalks\u2014hangs around her neck, and her long sleeves and pant legs shield her from the giant mosquitoes hovering heavy in the air. Arriving at the edge of the field, she heads down a muddy path between walls of bash\u014d plants, their leaves forming a canopy of green above her. A black-and-white butterfly lands on the deep purple inflorescence of a nearby bash\u014d flower. \u201cOb\u0101chan (grandmother),\u201d Nao says, spotting the insect and grinning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Nao made the decision to move back home to Ogimi a decade ago, it was to deepen her understanding of bash\u014dfu weaving and of her grandmother, the Living National Treasure Toshiko Taira. Working with Toshiko in the years before her passing at age 101, Nao witnessed the fierce tenacity that enabled her grandmother to successfully revitalize bash\u014dfu production in the village\u2019s once-thriving Kijoka district, where the craft had nearly died out in the wake of World War II.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even as a centenarian, when Toshiko could no longer ride her bicycle down the road, she would insist on checking on their bash\u014d fields after the region\u2019s frequent typhoons. \u201cThere were other people who could do it, but she wanted to see the fields with her own eyes,\u201d says Nao, who would indulge her grandmother by taking her to patrol the fields by car.\nIt was only in the last six months of her life that Toshiko scaled back her long hours at the workshop, though she continued to arrive before dawn to prepare the space for the day\u2019s labor. \u201cThe mission of a Living National Treasure isn\u2019t about resting at 90,\u201d says Nao\u2019s mother, Mieko Taira, who manages the bash\u014dfu operation that Toshiko left behind upon her death in 2022. \u201cEven after age 100, it\u2019s about self-improvement and nurturing the next generation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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