Japanese-made sewing machine

Sewing machines came with the black ships (kurofune). The first piece of mechanical equipment imported into Japan was a sewing machine. The technology to produce them became a nawashiro, the place to where the Japanese precision machine industry was nurtured.

Foot pedal-operated sewing machines spread throughout Japan after World War II, accelerating the shift from kimono to Western-style clothes for daily wear. lt was the nawashiro of today’s Japanese fashion industry.

The technology to create the strong set of parts needed to withstand the wear and tear of numerous needle movements was based on the nawashiro of Ja anese knives, nihonto. From there it was only a small step to shipping made-in-Japan quality around the world.