Toshiko Taira

[3] At the encouragement of the mill's owner, Soichiro Ohara, she began to study under Kichinosuke Tonomura, the head of a folk art museum.

[6] After World War II, for kimono made from kijōka-bashōfu fell; Taira began to make table runners and cushions from coarse bashōfu plant fibers, but was criticized for bringing down the quality associated with kijōka-bashōfu.

[7] Following this, Taira began to work more frequently with finer bashōfu fibers.

Taira opened a bashōfu textile studio in 1963 and hired some local weavers in order to centralize and increase her production.

The Kijoka Basho-fu Industrial Cooperative Association was established in 1984, and in 1986, the Ogimi Village Bashofu Hall opened and began offering training.