Started over 90 years ago, Kadono Sarashi Some is a 4th generation textile company located in the Sakai neighborhood of Osaka. For over 400 years, this area has been known for bleaching cotton, thanks to its favorable geographic location. First, there’s abundant water from the Ishizu River that runs right in front of Kadono’s factory. Additionally, in the days where the cloth was dried in the sun, the steep hillsides and local sea breezes were ideal.
-The Ishizu River-
The fabric used in Kadono’s sarashi is not tightly woven. While a nice white dress shirt has about 60 threads per centimeter, this fabric has only 20 threads per centimeter, making it perfect for straining dashi.
-Raw cotton cloth (left), bleaching the cloth (middle), spinning partially dry (right)-
Since raw, unbleached cotton actually sheds water, it is the bleaching process that makes the fabric absorb water. The bleaching process takes upwards of 30 hours and water heated to 90 degrees C (about 194 degrees F). After bleaching, the fabric is spun to remove excess water, stitched together into a piece that is 1,200 meters (almost 4,000 feet!) long and run through a machine that dries it with steam. The cloth is then cut into 10-meter pieces and packaged.
-Drying + cutting the bleached cloth-
Sarashi have various uses including straining dashi, wrapping tofu, etc.
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