MIMUS
美しく、まごころを結ぶ
贈り物に込めた思い、
人と人のつながりをしっかり封じ込める水引。
水引をかけることは清らかで神聖なことであり、
相手を尊ぶという日本の心を表しています。
「MIMUS」は長きにわたる伝統と作法が息づく
伊予水引伝統工芸士の“技”に焦点を当てたオリジナルブランドです。
時間を忘れて見とれてしまうような水引を結ぶ手もとの美しさ、
繊細かつ力強さがほとばしるディテールは
熟練の技によって生み出されたものです。
美しく結ぶ手から生まれた「MIMUS」は
時代の感覚や生活スタイルを俯瞰し、
私たちの日常にもすんなりと映える
新しい水引のスタンダードを創造します。
MIMUS Binding your truehearted feelings with beauty
Mizuhiki are traditional paper cords used for binding up envelopes for formal occasions. For Japanese people, mizuhiki are a way to bind their deepest feelings into a gift, and connect person to person with a firm bond. Fastening mizuhiki to an envelope cleanses the heart. It's a sacred act. It expresses the Japanese values of care and respect for other people. At MIMUS, we hold fast to the old traditions and ways. We are a unique brand, with our focus on the trained skills of the traditional mizuhiki artisans of Iyo (the old name for Ehime Prefecture). Gazing at the nimble beauty of braided mizuhiki, you will almost forget the passage of time. Their detailed work, delicate yet full of power, is born of finely honed, practiced skills. Born of hands that bind with beauty, MIMUS creates a new standard for mizuhiki. Our aesthetic encompasses modern tastes and lifestyles, smoothly reflecting our daily lives.
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1920年代の水引製造の様
Mizuhiki-making in the 1920s
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1970年代の手漕ぎ水引の作業風景
Crafting handmade mizuhiki in the 1970s
現在の水引細工製造の様子。愛媛県・四国中央市では
巧みな技が生かされた工芸品が伝統工芸士らの手によって生まれている。
Craft production of present-day mizuhiki. Thanks to the dexterous trained skills of traditional artisans, these handicraft objects are coming to life in Ehime Prefecture's Shikokuchuo City.
色鮮やかさを捨てた潔さは
まるで花嫁の白無垢のよう
結納飾りの技術を魅せるため本来は色とりどりで豪華絢爛な結納飾りを、
あえて色に頼らず白一色の絹巻の水引で製作。
Avoiding brilliant colors, this plain and pure mizuhiki calls to mind a bride's white Mizuhiki.
Engagement-gift envelopes are usually adorned with magnificent, colorful decorations. Here, to show the craft of mizuhiki in its pristine glory, we've deliberately avoided relying on coloration, to create a pure white, silk-wrapped mizuhiki.
［鳳凰 / "Hoo" (The Chinese phoenix)] 
［亀 / "Kame" (The Turtle)]
巧の技を伝承する
結納飾りの域を超えた挑戦
【白無垢】で取り除いた「色」をそれぞれのイメージで返したシリーズ。
技術革新により生み出された色彩の豊かさや質感もご堪能ください。
Inheriting dexterous trained skills, we've made these works more than engagement-gift decorations.
In IRO-MUKU, the colors that we avoided in SHIRO-MUKU come back in each of the images that make up this series. Savor the rich coloration and feel of these objects, born out of innovative techniques.
［竹 / "Take" (The Bamboo)]
インテリアにモダンに馴染む
繊細さが際立つミニスケール
無垢シリーズに欠かせない“技”はそのままに、現代のライフスタイルにもマッチするよう小さいサイズにして製作された結納飾り。
Standing out for its delicacy, this miniature-scale design works well in modern interiors.
These engagement-gift decorations keep the traditional trained skills so vital to the "MUKU" series. At the same time, we've created small-sized mizuhiki that match today' s lifestyle.
![左 [鶴/Tsuru ( The Crane ) ]、右 [亀/Kame ( The Turtle ) ]](images/komuku_img01.jpg)
![左 [鶴/Tsuru ( The Crane ) ]、右 [亀/Kame ( The Turtle ) ]](images/komuku_img01_sp.jpg)
左[鶴 / "Tsuru" (The Crane) ]、右[亀 / "Kame" (The Turtle) ] 
［松 / "Matsu" (The Pine Tree)]
［NAMI］シリーズも同色で展開
［AWAJI］series; 8 colors in total. We are now developing the
［NAMI］series in the same range of colors, tipped with braiding.
昭和30~40年代の手漕ぎ水引のデッドストックで作られた水引アクセサリー。
今ではもう作ることができない質感や色、素材感をお楽しみいただけます。
This is a range of mizuhiki accessories crafted from leftover stocks of handmade mizuhiki from the mid-Fifties to mid-Sixties. Enjoy the vintage feel, colors and textures of these objects that could never be made today.
［NAMI］シリーズも同色で展開
［AWAJI］series; 8 colors in total. We are now developing the
［NAMI］series in the same range of colors, tipped with braiding.
廃版になるなど、製品としては使えなくなった各社デッドストックの水引細工のパーツを販売。アクセサリーやオブジェ、インテリアとして、それぞれのアイデアで甦ることを祈って。
We also sell mizuhiki handicraft parts from various companies' leftover stock. These parts have gone out of circulation or are no longer usable as products. With original ideas, we hope that they'll find new lives as accessories, art objects and interior decorations.
Designer message
本来は色とりどりで豪華絢爛な結納飾りですが、伊予水引伝統工芸士の皆さんの“技”を最大限にお見せしたく、あえて色に頼らず白一色の絹巻の水引で作って頂いた【白無垢】。技の集結に水引の線（芯）の強さも活きて、私の想像を超えるとても美しい結納飾りになりました。
さらに、その白無垢の一つひとつの形に注目し、個々に磨きをかけ、結納飾りの域を超える挑戦をしたのが【彩無垢】です。
白無垢では技術を魅せるために取り除いた「色」をそれぞれのイメージで返します。水引の美しい色や質感も堪能してください。
【子無垢】シリーズは、現代のライフスタイルに合うようにサイズは小さく、しかし、無垢シリーズに欠かせない“技”はそのままに。ディテールは従来のサイズと同じく大変精巧なつくりです。
また、今回の製作では「技術の伝承」をより意識しています。今は結納を交わす人も少なくなり、結納飾りの需要も減ってきました。結婚の形も変わってきたように、結納飾りも単に結納のためだけではなく、現代の空間にあったアートとしての可能性があると確信しています。
また、ゆくゆくは天国へ旅立つときに寄り添えるものにもなれば…と、水引の夢はまだまだ続いているのでした。
月岡 彩
Traditionally, mizuhiki are colorful, splendid engagement-gift decorations. But I wanted to show just what the traditional artisans who make Iyo mizuhiki can achieve with their trained skills, and so I purposely avoided depending on coloration in my design. The result of their labors was the silk-wrapped mizuhiki SHIRO-MUKU (Bridal Mizuhiki). The artisans put their skills into making full use of the strength of the mizuhiki's cords (their cores), and they created an engagement-gift decoration so beautiful it surpassed all I'd imagined. And then there's IRO-MUKU (Colorful Mizuhiki). This work focused on each and every shape found in SHIRO-MUKU, and then refined them to take us beyond the realm of engagement-gift decorations. In SHIRO-MUKU, I avoided relying on coloration to show the craft of mizuhiki in its pristine glory. But color come back in each of the images that make up the IRO-MUKU series. Savor the beautiful coloration and feel of these mizuhiki. The KO-MUKU (Miniature Mizuhiki) series is small-sized, to match today's lifestyle. At the same time, we've kept the traditional trained skills so vital to the MUKU series. The details in this series are the same as the others, so the craftwork involved is amazingly dexterous. Also, in producing these objects, we've been aware of passing on traditional skills. A large number of traditional artisans were involved in the work. Nowadays, fewer and fewer people do traditional exchanges of engagement and return gifts, so the demand for engagement-gift decorations has gone down. The shape of marriage has changed, and that's why I firmly believe that there's an opening for mizuhiki decorations to go beyond being just for engagement gifts, and for them to find a place as art in modern spaces. And mizuhiki aren't just for Japanese engagements and weddings, either. They're close by us in the funeral arrangements when we take our final journey to the land above...So, you find that even then, the mizuhiki dream goes on.
Aya Tsukioka
Profile
月岡 彩 / アーティスト
1978年愛媛県松山市生まれ。武蔵野美術大学空間演出デザイン学科卒。
2001年「新カクレンボ大作戦」で第2回SICFグランプリ受賞。
街に身を隠す「瞬間自動販売機スカート」が評価され、国内外の展覧会やプロジェクトに参加。
2009年には、Newsweekにて「世界が尊敬する日本人100人」に選出。
Aya Tsukioka / Artist
Born in Matsuyama City, Ehime Prefecture, in 1978. Graduated from the Department of Scenography, Space and Fashion Design at Musashino Art University. In 2001, she was awarded Grand Prix at the Second Spiral Independent Creators Festival for New Grand Strategy for Hide-and-Seek. Her Instant Vending-Machine Skirt, which allows the wearer to hide in an urban setting, won Tsukioka wide recognition, and she has exhibited and undertaken projects both in Japan and abroad. In 2009, Tsukioka featured as one of "The World's 100 Most Respected Japanese People" in Newsweek magazine.
伊予水引とは
約1400年の昔、遣隋使が帰路の平穏無事を祈り、日本に持ち帰ったとされる紅白の麻紐。それが平安時代には宮中行事など大切な儀式に使われるようになり、その後、日本の精神文化と結びつき、大切な贈り物に水引をかけることで清らかさ、神聖さ、相手を尊ぶ気持ちを込めるようになりました。愛媛県・四国中央市の伊予水引の発祥は、日本髪を束ねるため紙をこよりにした元結（もとゆい）の製造から始まりました。三椏、楮、豊かな水、そして乾燥作業に適した松原に恵まれて、紙すきの技術と共に元結産業は発展しますが、明治の断髪令により衰退。その後、元結の素材である水引を生かした取り組みを行い、色水引や金銀、光沢フィルムを巻いた水引など新商品の開発や、結納飾り、金封、美術工芸品といった加工品の製造にも取り組み、現在、長野県・飯田市と並ぶ水引の二大産地となっています。
Iyo Mizuhiki
From about 1400 years ago, a series of Japanese envoys was sent to China, to study its culture and civilization. On their return voyages home, they used to pray for safe passage over the seas, and they brought the red-and-white twined linen cords that they used as lucky charms back to Japan. During the classical Heian period of Japanese history, these twined cords came to be used during major ceremonies at the Imperial palace and in other elite circles. From there, they gradually made their way into the spiritual culture of Japan, and developed into mizuhiki. Then as now, they were fastened to important gifts to express cleansing, sacredness, and care and respect for the people receiving the gift. The Iyo mizuhiki of Shikokuchuo City in Ehime Prefecture first appeared with the production of motoyui. These are paper cords used as hair-ties in traditional Japanese hairstyles. The area was blessed with all the elements needed for making Japanese paper plentiful growths of mitsumata paper bushes and paper mulberry trees, abundant supplies of water, and pine groves to serve as workspaces for drying the paper. So, papermaking techniques developed alongside the burgeoning paper hair-tie industry. However, men's topknots officially fell out of favor in the late 1800s as Japan modernized, and with that the industry went into decline. After that, the hair-tie makers turned to mizuhiki, which use the same materials, as an alternative. New products have been developed, such as mizuhiki that are colored, gilded in silver and gold, or wrapped in glossy film. They have been processed and marketed as decorations for engagement and wedding-gift envelopes, and as artistic handicraft objects. Today, Shikokuchuo City ranks as one of the two great centers of mizuhiki production, along with Iida City in Nagano Prefecture.