The Loop-Wheel Machine: Wakayama’s Slow Knitting Tradition
May 20, 2026 — Mercer St.
In Wakayama Prefecture, south of Osaka, a small number of knitting factories still operate machines that were imported from Switzerland in the early twentieth century. These machines — called tsuri-ami-ki (吹編機) in Japanese — produce cotton fabric at roughly one-twentieth the speed of a modern circular knitting machine.
They continue to be used because the fabric they produce has a character that is genuinely difficult to replicate by other means.
In this note
- The history of knitting in Wakayama
- What a loop-wheel machine is and how it works
- Why the slow process produces a different fabric
- How loop-wheel fabric compares to modern circular knit
- The current situation — how many machines remain and why it matters
Wakayama and the history of knitting
Wakayama Prefecture has been associated with textile production for centuries. The region was known for Kishuu flannel from the Edo period, and later became central to Japan’s modern knitting industry when circular knitting machines were imported from Switzerland in 1909.
The Second World War interrupted production across Japan’s textile sector. Many factories were destroyed. Wakayama’s older machines survived in part because of their age and location. After the war, Wakayama emerged as one of the few places where older and newer knitting equipment continued to operate side by side. The loop-wheel machines that had been largely displaced elsewhere were still running.
What a loop-wheel machine is
A loop-wheel machine is a circular knitting machine — it produces fabric in a continuous tube. The difference from modern circular knitting is in how it operates.
Modern circular machines use mechanical tension to pull fabric downward as it is knitted, allowing them to run at high speed. A loop-wheel machine uses gravity instead. The fabric hangs from the needles under its own weight, and the machine advances slowly — approximately one metre per hour, compared to ten metres or more on a modern machine.
The Japanese name reflects this directly:
- Tsuri (吹) — suspended, hanging
- Ami (編) — knitting
- Ki (機) — machine
The fabric is literally suspended as it forms.
What the slow process produces
Because the yarn is not under mechanical tension during knitting, the loops form at their natural size and settle into the fabric without distortion. The result is a fabric with more air in its structure than standard circular-knit cotton at the same weight.
The practical differences are consistent across loop-wheel fabrics:
- Loft: The fabric feels lighter relative to its weight. It has a slight airiness that standard circular-knit cotton does not have at equivalent weight.
- Surface texture: Not perfectly smooth, but with a quiet texture that comes from the yarn’s natural variation being preserved rather than compressed.
- Handfeel: Often described as soft and cloud-like — present but not stiff, with a gentle give.
- Tube construction: Garments cut from loop-wheel fabric can be made without side seams if the tube is used as-is.
The slowness is not inefficiency. It is the mechanism by which the fabric acquires its character.
How loop-wheel fabric compares to modern circular knit
Modern circular knitting machines were developed to increase speed and consistency. They achieve both. A modern machine produces fabric faster, with more uniform stitch size, at lower cost per metre. For applications where consistency and volume are the priority, modern circular knit is entirely appropriate.
The difference is in fabric character. High-speed mechanical knitting compresses the yarn loops during formation and uses tension to maintain stitch regularity. The resulting fabric is even and predictable — but it does not have the loft or surface character of loop-wheel fabric. The difference is not a matter of one being better in the abstract; it is a matter of what the fabric is like to handle and wear.
Mercer Note
"Cloud Cotton" and similar names used by other brands are marketing terms for loop-wheel cotton. They describe the same category of fabric using evocative language rather than technical terms. Mercer St. uses "Wakayama Cloud Cotton" because the knitting location is a factual specification, and "Cloud" reflects the fabric’s loft character without overstating it.
The machines today
Fewer than 200 loop-wheel machines are estimated to remain in active use in Japan, most of them in Wakayama. [VERIFY: confirm this figure against a primary source before publishing] Many are close to a century old. Maintaining them requires technicians who understand the specific mechanics of each machine — knowledge held by a small number of people and not easily transferred.
The machines are not being manufactured new. When one breaks beyond repair, it is gone. This is not a reason to romanticise them, but it is a relevant fact: the fabric they produce cannot be replicated simply by deciding to make it elsewhere.
What to look for
- Does the product page specify the knitting method (loop-wheel / tsuri-ami) or knitting location?
- Is the cotton origin noted separately from the knitting location?
- Is the fibre composition and yarn specification provided?
What this means for Mercer St.
The Wakayama Cloud Cotton pieces in the Mercer St. collection use cotton-blend fleece knitted on loop-wheel machines in Wakayama. The production details are confirmed with the supplier. [VERIFY: confirm machine type, production location, and fibre specification with supplier before publishing product-specific claims]