Sea Island Cotton is said to have its roots in the Bahamas, an island nation in the Caribbean Sea. The cotton is still cultivated in the Caribbean, and we use Sea Island Cotton from Jamaica. The West Indian Sea Island Cotton grown here is characterized by the cotton balls popping from the bottom of the tree to the top sequentially and in varied timing. Because the quality of cotton deteriorates when wet from rain or other water, it must be harvested as soon as the balls pop. Therefore, the cotton is harvested by hand, one by one, over a period of many months, taking great care to damage the fibers as little as possible.
This labor-intensive cotton cultivation not only provides high quality, but also brings new employment to the local community. In recent years, the company has expanded the scale of its operations and aims to make cotton a national specialty product.
KONDOBO is the only spinning mill in Japan authorized to handle Sea Island Cotton. We take pride in our technical capabilities and to spin premium yarn.

The name Sea Island Cotton comes from the Sea Island region of South Carolina in the United States. Though flourishing there after being brought from the Bahamas, the cultivation of Sea Island Cotton was destroyed by insect pests in the early 20th century. A century later, after much research with a local university on seeds, it made a miraculous comeback. This is American Sea Island Cotton.
It is grown in Mexico’s El Paso, a highland area with 3,700 hours of sunshine per year and a large temperature difference between day and night. When it is time to harvest, frost occurs and the cotton balls pop at once, allowing machines to harvest the cotton resulting in higher productivity than in the West Indies.
This cotton is only available in Japan, and the American Sea Island yarn ASIC spun by KONDOBO is the only premium yarn of its kind in the world.