Maedup, Dahoe and Kkunmok
Hopefully if I post the links in my livejournal to look at them later, I won't be so distracted and instead will read papers.

Just on a whim, I realised that I hadn't really looked at kumihimo (because I need another way of making string, naturally) and started reading that it had been introduced from Korea. Darn it. What we all need is another thing that I can trace back to Korea and obsessively read about! ;)

Apparently, it first arrived in Japan called Shiragigumi (I'm assuming Shira = Silla), later to become Koraiuchi.

In Korean, the cords are called Dahoe or Kkunmok,and the decorative knotting the cords are used for is Maedup (sometimes called 'Korean macrame.')

The Korea Maedup Institute has some information in English about the history of decorative cords.Their redesigned website (also here doesn't seem to have much information yet, but the old site as a little on dahoe, and maedup and here. (Instructions about the various knots used in maedup are in Korean but here. The Maedup Shop, has knotting tutorials, too.

There are better photos, of actual knotwork, in books I had photocopied (because I knew even if I wasn't interested then, I would be at some point...) but website links are easier to blog about. :)

Unless textile experts really start looking at kumihimo and dahoe braids, I'm not so sure about the modern equipment used. The basic four-strand braid looks like an inverted version of whipcord braiding. this website implies that kumihimo originally was fingerloop braiding. And her more modern page makes this even more obvious. But if it is more akin to whipcording in more than four strands (and it always seems to be multiples of four) then having a stand to rest the bobbins on would be useful, especially if it was a one-person job. Hmmmm.


I can't read Italian, but this rather big PDF looks really interesting.