Japanese weaving. Bashofu weaver Toshiko Taira, aged 87, working with an apprentice. Bashofu is a fine fabric made from a banana fibre local to Okinawa, Japan. Bashofu weaving was a home-based craft, and highly valued, but there are few, if any, weavers producing the fabric at home anymore. Toshiko Taira, in the northern Okinawa village of Kijoka, is virtually all that is left of the art. She and her daughter are attempting to keep the craft of Bashofu weaving alive. Toshiko Taira has been designated a national treasure of Japan.