Named with a word meaning 'cloth', NUNO is a Japanese textile-design company. Founded in 1984 by Junichi Arai and the company's current director, Reiko Sudo, NUNO is known for its innovations in textile production. NUNO designers are inspired by the past, present and future, integrating elements, such as paper or feathers or aluminium, with industrial methods, such as spatter-plating and chemical etching. All NUNO textiles - more than 2,500 have been created - are produced in Japan and are usually the handiwork of an individual craftsperson. Each bolt of cloth has a story to tell. Though their textiles appear regularly in books, textile exhibitions and museum collections, a comprehensive NUNO monograph has not existed - until now. Featuring influential or experimental fabrics, the book is organized into seven chapters, each based on a theme deriving from the onomatopoeic coupling in Japanese that defines a family of fabrics. For example, 'Shima Shima', meaning 'striped', presents striped designs ranging from bold and contrasting like zebra to subtly variegated like a tabby cat. Based on interviews, archival research and factory visits, the texts are illustrated with specially commissioned photos and drawings. Interspersed are essays by a wide range of contributors, from writer Haruki Murakami and architect Toyo Ito to curator Anna Jackson

• Foreword / Caroline Kennedy
• Naomi Pollock
• Haruki Murakami
• Kenya Hara
• Brooke Hodge
• Akane Teshigara
• Toyo Ito
• Arto Lindsay
• Anna Jackson
• Adam Lowe and Charlotte Skene Catling
• Introduction / Fuwa fuwa. Fuwa fuwa / Portrait of a textile: Jellyfish
• Shiwa shiwa. Shiwa shiwa / Portrait of a textile: Origami weave
• Shima shima. Stripes of all colours / Portrait of a textile: Colour plate
• Kira kira. Shining within / Portrait of a textile: Amate
• Suke suke. Three transparencies / Portrait of a textile: Turkish wall
• Zawa zawa. Four poems / Portrait of a textile: Paper rolls
• Boro boro. Boro boro / Portrait of a textile: Threadstray
• Iro iro. The arrow of time: the magical transformation of surface and colour / Chronology of textiles