Mizuhiki Experience: Creating Beautiful Japanese Knot Art

Mizuhiki—the Japanese art of cord-tying. Its origins lie in vermilion and white hemp string brought to Japan from China over 1,400 years ago. Since then, mizuhiki has gained ties to Japanese spiritual culture as it developed into its current form, which denotes purity and respect during exchanges of gifts. More than that, mizuhiki knots are the ties that bind people together.

Today, mizuhiki adorn Japanese stationery like wedding envelopes, put the finishing touch on gift wrap, and can even be made into jewelry like earrings and rings.

To learn the basics and try it ourselves, Team Musubi sat down with Omoda Kyoko, Representative Director of the Modern Mizuhiki Association and consultant on our Mizuhiki MUSUBI Craft Kit. She taught us the foundational knots, as well as some fun, creative designs that anyone can use in their daily life. So grab a kit, follow along with us (either here or at our tutorial video on YouTube), and get crafting!

First, I watched Omoda demonstrate how to prepare mizuhiki cords. This involves cutting the strings to the appropriate length and softening them.

Most designs will require you to cut the strings in half from the original 90 cm (34.4 in). Simply line up the ends and cut the string right at its center point.

Mizuhiki strings are made of Japanese washi paper strengthened with a glue called nori and wrapped with colorful threads. Because of the glue, new mizuhiki strings are a bit stiff to work with right away and should be softened first.

All you have to do is hold the cord between your thumb and a hard, cylindrical object like a pen and slowly pull your thumb and pen toward the end of the string until you reach about 5 cm (2 in) from the end. Do this several times with the same string.

When I tried it, I discovered that slow and steady is key. The first time I did it, I went too quickly and almost gave myself rope burn from the friction. Good to know!

Moving on to crafting a knot, also known as musubi, I tried tying an awaji knot. This is among the most fundamental mizuhiki, with many designs based on this one knot. It has three loops and a cross through the middle. As a beginner, it helps to start with a single cord to understand the basics before adding more cords.

1. First, cross the right end of the cord up and over the left to form a teardrop-shaped loop near the middle of the string.

2. Pinch the string with your right hand where it crosses.

3. Next, loop that same cord (now at the upper left) down and bend it toward the right, so it crosses over both left and right sides of the loop. I kept messing up here because I wanted to thread it through the loop, but the knot will fall apart in the next stage if you do that.

4. Next, pinch where the strings overlap on the left with your left thumb to hold the shape in place. It should look a bit like a sideways pretzel at this point.

5. Take the loose thread on the upper right and cross it over the loose thread on the lower right.

6. You’re now going to weave that same thread through the three holes of your “pretzel.” Go under, over, under, over, and pull slightly to tighten. It may not look like much at this point, but don’t worry—the adjustment stage is where the knot becomes beautiful.

7. Turn the knot slightly so that you have one loop on the bottom and two loops on top, with the loose ends of the cord pointing diagonally up, one toward the left and the other toward the right.

8. Gently pull the upper loops on both sides. This tightens the knot and makes the bottom loop smaller.

9. Pinch the point where the upper loops cross between your thumb and forefinger. Still pinching the cross, gently pull one end of the cord, then the other. Switch which hand you pinch with as needed to make it easier.

10. Pull the upper loops to either side again and repeat pulling the cords, continuing to adjust until the mizuhiki knot is the size you want it and all three loops are the same size.

And there you have it! A single-cord awaji knot.

Mizuhiki knots usually contain multiple strings. Three and five are especially common, while as many as ten are seen in more advanced designs. Below are a few tips for working with multiple strings at once.

The number one key to tying multiple-cord mizuhiki is to maintain the same order of the strings throughout and keep them flat—don’t let them cross over each other or overlap. Let’s say, for example, you’re working with one purple, one white, and one red thread. Keep the order of purple, then white, then red throughout the entire knot.

To keep the strings flat and in order, it helps to use your non-active fingers to support the strings as you form each new loop. You can also curve the strings bit by bit, moving slowly and massaging them into the proper shape as you go. Finally, if the strings get out of order, adjust them by gently pulling each string, starting with the innermost one, until they once again line up properly.

I found this harder with strings of different textures. If you’re having trouble, try it with only silky-textured strings or only sparkly strings until you get the hang of it.

When tying mizuhiki, because the strings maintain the same order throughout, you will naturally use a shorter length of the innermost string than the outermost string. Because of this, the string ends will stop lining up after you’ve made a few loops. This can make it challenging to weave the strings through multiple loops at once, as you do in Step 6 of the awaji knot above.

To make it easier, gently tap the ends of the strings on the table so that they become even. The strings will naturally cross each other and get out of order when you weave, but that’s okay. Re-adjust by pulling each string in order, starting with the innermost one.

It’s tempting to pull all strings at once in Steps 9 and 10 when adjusting the size of the loops, but the final knot comes out much neater when you pull one string at a time. As before, start with the innermost string and work your way out.

My awaji knot didn’t look good until I did the adjustment. But once I got the loops to the same size, it finally looked the way I wanted it to!

Once you’ve mastered the awaji knot, many more design possibilities open up to you. A few adjustments can turn a pair of awaji knots into stylish drop earrings. Adding two more loops turns the awaji knot into a plum blossom knot, or ume musubi, which can become a bookmark, charm, and more. They can liven up gift wrap and add color to gift envelopes. Try out the Mizuhiki MUSUBI Craft Kit for more how-tos and design inspiration!

When I told Omoda this story, she nodded knowingly. “Several new couples came out of that matchmaking party,” she added. “Not only knots, but hearts were tied together, too!”