Freelance Traveller

#81: Kumihimo

This article originally appeared in the July/August 2026 issue.

Kumihimo (組み紐 or 組紐) is the Japanese craft of braiding threads together. Originally used to decorate samurai armour and kimono, it is now popular for making jewellery and bracelets. There are a number of different stylesFor more on kumihimo (and its three styles) see the website of Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Wikipedia has a good article as well. I assume that hira-uchi himo is the kind of kumihimo braiding seen in the friendship bracelets I was taught to create in Southeast Asia..

Years ago, I learned a creativity technique called ‘random word’. If you were stuck on a problem you selected a random word (nouns tend to work best) from a collection and tried to force some link between the problem and the word. This would help you see alternative ways forward and potentially lead to a solution. I’ve not only used the method, I still have the tissue box from then full of a couple of hundred words on my windowsill. Usually, I dip into this as a kind of writing prompt but sometimes it has helped with workplace problems as well. I shall glide over my wife calling it a dust collector (along with my TravCon Starburst for Extreme Heroism which sits beside it and acts as a spur to keep writing, keep creating).

I don’t usually use the random words to start a new piece of writing, but I do sometimes find my notebook, or more usually now my antinet, has an odd item here from something I’ve read in a journal, or a fragment there that I’ve gleaned from news, or a cutting I’ve made from a newspaper, or… the list goes on. Occasionally, I deliberately collect a handful of these and see if bringing them together might inspire a scene or two in an adventure, or a social media post, or even an article for Freelance Traveller. I should have kept a list so I could provide examples.

When I learned the word kumihimo a few years ago, it occurred to me that this process of bringing eclectic items together like that, braiding them if you will, could be a suitable term for what I was doing and perhaps encourage me to try it more often.

Perhaps it will encourage others to do similar.  No need to spend lots of money on threads and bobbins etc.; a notebook (or your antinet cards!) and a sharp eye for the world around you will do the trick. Force the connections between what you’ve gathered until you’ve got the germ of an idea and then work on making it sound more sensible and ‘in universe’ appropriate. Sometimes it will work; sometimes not, but it might well, at the very least, kick off thoughts that lead in other directions. It’s certainly one possible antidote to writer’s block but can also help escape ruts of creation where habits and thinking always lead in one direction.

The observant amongst you will notice that there is some overlap here with another Japanese art form: haiku (and related poetry). My history with this goes right back to 5th Grade in Virginia Beach but more and more of late I’ve come to appreciate the way it makes me look carefully and pay attention. No bad thing for any writer, referee or engaged role-player.