Prototype. Chapter text drafted from the research notes and not yet checked at the archives. Images awaiting permission are marked.

Suminoe (Suminoe Textile Co.)

Company · not yet checked at the source · Image permission pending

Made by: Denshichi Murata
Date: founded 1883; incorporated 1913
Place: Osaka
Held by: Suminoe (Suminoe Textile Co.)
Themes: Machine tufting & Dalton, Global diffusion of tufting, Woven carpet

View at the source Cited in chapter 7, notes 6, 12

Cite this source

Denshichi Murata. “Suminoe (Suminoe Textile Co.),” founded 1883; incorporated 1913. Suminoe (Suminoe Textile Co.). suminoe.jp/en/pages/company.

Research notes

Founded in 1883 by Denshichi Murata, a rice merchant who bought looms to weave carpets; incorporated as Suminoe Textile in 1913. Its corporate history says production was concentrated at its Nara plant in 1977, Japan's first domestic carpet tiles were made there in August 1980, and the Nara plant received JIS certification for tufted carpet in March 1983. The company claims Japan's first domestically produced tufted carpet (year not given). Renamed SUMINOE Co., Ltd. in December 2024. Why it matters: Japan's main machine-made carpet maker and the route by which tufting and carpet tiles were industrialised there. Dates: 1883 and 1980 from corporate history; first-tufted-carpet year not found. Independent sources: https://edinetdb.jp/company/E00574/history · https://sharedresearch.jp/en/companies/3501 Research note (Oct 2026): facts taken from search-result summaries; the pages themselves weren't opened. Check the cited pages before quoting.