MEIBUTU GIRE(FAMOUS CLOTH) Meibutsu Gire is a rare kind of cloth which came to Japan from Chinaabout 600 years ago during the Kamakura and Edo periods. At that timecloth dying was not a very highly developed art in japan, so this cloth was treated as a priceless treasure and was used for sheaths for bowls and other tools from the Japanese tea ceremony, edging around expensive pictures,or in pieces for decorating scrolls, screens, and other works of art.The cloth itself came to be known as “meibutsu gire”(famous cloth). The Japanese tea masters who collected such cloth gave names to each separate sheath and these ancient specimens have been preserved and handed down to us. We have rediscovered the process for making “meibutsu gire”and it is now valued by people involved in the tea ceremony as well as by the general public.