Ultra-Fine Silk Cashmere Stole "Gokusai"　

Ultra-fine silk · Good Design Award 2025 · muto, Nishikatsu, Yamanashi

Thread one-third the thickness of human hair
GOKUSAI is muto's most premium stole — named for the Japanese word meaning "ultra-fine." The warp is 100% silk spun to a fineness roughly one-third the diameter of a strand of human hair. At this scale, the number of artisans capable of handling both the spinning and the weaving is extremely limited, and production is kept to a small quantity as a result. The 2025 Good Design Award recognized the stole for the coherence of its material, technique, and design.

Silk thread approximately one-third the diameter of human hair

Silk warp, silk-cashmere weft
The weft — the threads that run across the width — is a blend of silk 70% and cashmere 30%, developed jointly by muto and a spinning company. Silk brings luster and smooth drape; cashmere brings softness and warmth. Together, they produce a fabric that feels like almost nothing when draped over the shoulders — the weight is 35 g for a stole measuring 200 × 110 cm (78.7 × 43.3 in). It folds small enough to slip into a bag and opens without resistance.

A gradient that shifts with the angle of light

Color that moves with light
The surface carries a soft luster that reads differently depending on the angle — a faint depth within a vivid gradient, where the color shifts subtly as the stole moves. The drape is natural and unhurried, following the body without stiffness. Not loud, but present: the kind of thing that registers without announcing itself.

Worn across all seasons
Silk cashmere is one of the few natural materials that works throughout the year. In spring and autumn, it works as a light layer over the shoulders. In summer, it deflects air conditioning and sun. The luster and gradient read well at formal occasions — weddings, evening events, or any setting where a garment needs to carry some weight without effort.

A quiet luminosity for dressed and casual wear alike

Six months before the first stole leaves the loom
muto was founded in 1967 in Nishikatsu, a town in southeastern Yamanashi Prefecture long established as a weaving region — historically known for kaiki, a high-grade silk fabric produced there for centuries. The town sits where snowmelt from Mount Fuji feeds the rivers, and that water has long been part of the finishing process for muto's cloth.

"A single silk stole takes at least six months to complete."
— muto

The process begins with the thread itself — a co-development between muto and a spinning company, producing the ultra-fine silk-cashmere blend from raw fibre. This is followed by "double covering" — a process that reinforces the thread's tensile strength so it can withstand the loom — then warping (aligning and counting the warp threads), and "drawing in" (threading each warp end through the heddles before weaving can begin). Each of these stages must be completed before a single pick is woven. The preparation alone takes approximately six months.

Nishikatsu, Yamanashi — fed by snowmelt from Mount Fuji

Preparing the warp threads

Joining finished warp threads to new ones — one thread at a time

Because the thread is so fine, the loom can only produce approximately four stoles per day. The cloth is then finished with Fuji snowmelt water and air-dried in the mountain wind. Each stole is the work of skilled hands applied slowly, at the pace the material demands.