Tonbyan (桐板, also tunbyan or, in Shuri, tunban) is a sheer, almost translucent summer cloth once worn by the elite of the Ryukyu Kingdom, often called Okinawa’s “phantom textile”. It was woven in Okinawa from imported fibre, most likely from China, and stopped being made around the 1930s when supplies ended. Exactly what the fibre was is still debated: ramie, banana fibre, agave and pineapple have all been proposed. No one weaves it today, but surviving garments are kept in Okinawa’s museums.
This page is part of our guide to Ryukyuan textiles, which compares all of Okinawa’s woven and dyed crafts.
Tonbyan at a Glance
| Japanese | 桐板 (トンビャン, トゥンビャン; トゥンバン in Shuri) |
| What it is | A thin, translucent plant-fibre cloth for summer formal wear |
| Fibre | Uncertain. Theories: ramie (苧麻), ito-bashō (糸芭蕉), agave (リュウゼツラン) and pineapple (鳳梨) |
| Made | In Okinawa, including Shuri, from imported thread; not woven since about the mid-1930s |
| Designation | None; it is no longer produced |
| Where to see it | Museum collections in Naha (see below); display depends on exhibition schedules |
A Cloth for Summer and for Honour
According to the National Museum of Nature and Science’s industrial-heritage database, records show that Ryukyuan kings gave tonbyan to retainers as a reward for distinguished service. A garment in the collection of the Naha Traditional Textile Business Cooperative, said to date from the early Shōwa era, is described there as having a distinctive transparency and being tailored in the Ryukyuan style (琉装). The same entry says tonbyan was woven in Shuri until around 1935 and disappeared after the war.
A 2011 conference paper by the geographer Yonemura Hajime, presented to the Association of Japanese Geographers, notes the tradition that tonbyan was imported from Fuzhou in China’s Fujian province during the kingdom era, often as thread that Okinawan weavers then wove. It was worn as summer clothing above all by people of high rank, but also more widely.
Did you know? The Naha City Museum of History holds a white tonbyan robe from the 18th–19th century with vermilion and indigo kasuri, including tuigwā (little bird) motifs. The museum describes its ground as a “transparent-looking fibre” and still catalogues it with a cautious “probably tonbyan” (桐板か).
The Mystery of the Fibre
Because so little tonbyan survives and the thread was imported, its raw material has long been uncertain. The National Museum of Nature and Science lists three theories: ramie, ito-bashō (the fibre banana used for bashōfu) and agave.
Yonemura’s paper adds a fourth: pineapple fibre. He found that pineapple fibre grown in Taiwan and Hainan was traded through Fuzhou in the Meiji to early Shōwa periods, and that the decline in those exports matches the time tonbyan stopped being made in Okinawa. He concludes that pineapple is a strong possibility, while noting the question is not settled.
Another line of research comes from Shuri weaving. A 2018 article on Nakagawa Masashichi’s website describes how the Shuri textile scholar Rubāsu Miyahira Ginko and her mother, Living National Treasure Miyahira Hatsuko, spent eight years reconstructing tonbyan, and reports that fibre analysis led them to conclude it was Chinese ramie. The article says the field in China where they found the ramie was later lost to industrial development, so the cloth could not be produced again. This is a magazine account rather than a published study, so we report it as their conclusion.
Why It Disappeared
Yonemura notes that, according to Okinawan statistics and oral tradition, tonbyan was woven until about the 1935–1945 period, after which imports from China stopped and weavers had no raw material. War damage around Shuri then destroyed many garments. While bingata, kasuri, Shuri ori and bashōfu were revived after the war, tonbyan was not.
Where to See Tonbyan
There is no working tonbyan studio to visit. Surviving pieces are held in collections, and whether they are on show depends on each museum’s exhibition programme:
- Naha City Museum of History (那覇市歴史博物館), Palette Kumoji 4F, 1-1-1 Kumoji, Naha; phone 098-869-5266. Holds the Fukuchi family tonbyan robe (catalogue code 7000002), viewable in its online digital museum.
- Okinawa Prefectural Museum & Art Museum (沖縄県立博物館・美術館) in Naha, which the 2018 article says holds several tonbyan garments. Check its collection search and exhibition schedule.
For more of the city, see our Naha guide.
Practical details in this section last checked: Oct 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is tonbyan?
Tonbyan (桐板) is a sheer, translucent summer cloth once worn by Ryukyu’s elite. It was woven in Okinawa from imported fibre and has not been made since around the 1930s.
What was tonbyan made from?
Nobody knows for certain. Ramie, ito-bashō banana fibre, agave and pineapple fibre have all been proposed, and research has favoured Chinese ramie or pineapple.
Can I buy tonbyan today?
No. It is no longer produced. Surviving garments are held by museums in Naha.
Where can I see tonbyan in Okinawa?
The Naha City Museum of History and the Okinawa Prefectural Museum & Art Museum hold examples. Display depends on their exhibition schedules, and the Naha museum shows one robe in its online digital museum.
Sources & Further Reading
Facts on this page were checked against these sources. Most are official Japanese-language pages from the prefecture, the Agency for Cultural Affairs, producers’ cooperatives and museums.
Museum and research sources
- Naha City Museum of History, Digital Museum: White weft-kasuri tonbyan robe (Fukuchi family collection) (official, Japanese)
- National Museum of Nature and Science, HITNET database: Shuri textile garments, including tonbyan (official, Japanese)
- Yonemura Hajime (2011), On pineapple fibre as the raw material of the Okinawan textile tonbyan, Association of Japanese Geographers (J-STAGE, Japanese)
- Okinawa Prefectural Museum & Art Museum: Collection search (Japanese)
Further reading
- Nakagawa Masashichi Shōten Yomimono (2018, republished 2019): the reconstruction of tonbyan by Rubāsu Miyahira Ginko (magazine article, Japanese)
Image credits
No photos are used on this page yet. We only use photos with a clear, commercially usable licence, and found none we could verify for this textile.