While I was growing up, my family, my relatives, and my neighbors – practically everyone - was working for the silk business in some way. Today, people no longer wear kimono as often, so as demand declined and so did the Nishijin silk industry. Many machiya houses where silk artisans and merchants lived and worked disappeared, replaced by modern buildings and wider streets. Yet, while wandering around the very small, narrow back streets in Nishijin, I still find myself hearing the sounds of the silk looms.