Japan's Kojima, with its proud Jeans Street, draws fans of vintage, deep-blue denim

KOJIMA, Japan (AP) — Denim, that All-American fabric, is all about being Japanese in the town of Kojima, where the main road is named Jeans Street, with real pairs of pants flapping like flags overhead.

Some would call this spot in southwestern seaside Okayama Prefecture a mecca of jeans, where fans from around the world make pilgrimage. The soda vending machines at the train station are plastered with the image of jeans. The roads are painted blue, with the lines at the edges pink and white, the trademark of Kojima jeans’ seams.

With some 40 jeans manufacturers and stores, including denim-themed cafes, the area draws about 100,000 visitors a year, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization.

Japanese jeans tend to be high-end, dark and durable. Although a tiny part of the global jeans market, they have carved out a niche with a reputation for craftsmanship. Kojima gave birth to popular brands like Big John, with roots dating to the 1940s, and now supplies international fashion brands, including Gucci.

“The Japanese industry has established a way of looking at denim from a much more connoisseurship and collecting approach” than a mass marketing one, says Emma McClendon, assistant professor of fashion studies at St. John’s University in New York.

In Kojima, you might be in for a disappointment if you expect the glamour of a fashion center. Jeans Street is quaint and uncrowded. Each company in the region is relatively small, hiring about 100 people.

What you will find are people taking pride in “monozukuri,” or “making things,” connoting a devoted, laborious attention to detail. It’s an ethic entrenched throughout Japan, from big carmakers to the local tofu store.

“More like making a kimono” is the way Yoshiharu Okamoto, a dyeing craftsman at Kojima-based manufacturer Momotaro Jeans, puts it.

His hands and nails are tinged blue from dipping threads of Zimbabwean cotton into a big pail of dye.

He knows by smell and feel the right state of the indigo, which he compares to a living thing. He swears it’s a 365-days-a-year job, as the dye has to be checked and mixed every day.

“It’s not that easy to get this special color,” Okamoto told The Associated Press during a recent tour of the production facilities. “It’s my life.”

The dark indigo hue of Made-in-Japan denim, much of it hailing from Kojima, is so distinctive it has earned the name “Japan blue,” also known as “tokuno blue,” which translates to “especially concentrated blue.”

Jeans made here aren’t cheap, ranging in price from a relatively affordable 33,000 yen ($230) per pair to those made by top craftsmen, which go for 200,000 yen ($1,400) or more.

Thomas Stege Bojer, founder of Denimhunters, an online site devoted to denim, says Japanese brands use “raw denim” that ages well and lasts a long time. He echoed the “ slow clothing” movement that has arisen in reaction to cheaper, mass-produced clothes.

“We just make too many clothes. The cycle is too fast, I think, and we need to slow down,” Bojer said from his home near Copenhagen, Denmark, where the walls are decorated with jeans.

As McClendon, the fashion professor, put it, the Japanese industry is "shifting the conversation around jeans to be about heritage elements, about educating consumers on historical details as a form of quality.”

Momotaro Jeans, for instance, come with a lifetime warranty: Tears and other problems get fixed for free, within reason. Japan Blue Co., which runs Momotaro, a brand that debuted in 2006, said annual sales totaled about 1.6 billion yen ($11 million) for the latest year. About 40% of sales come from outside Japan.

Like craftsman Okamoto, Shigeru Uchida, a loom specialist, and Naomi Takebayashi, who works at a sewing machine, believe they have special skills they must guard and hand to the next generation. They spoke while leading a group of younger sewers.

The two say they have a special relationship with their machines. They listen to the machines' sounds to make daily adjustments.

The clattering power looms are vintage Toyodas, from the weaving company that preceded automaker Toyota. Spare parts are hard to find. There is one loom operated by hand, used for products that the company says boast a unique texture.

Masataka Suzuki, president and chief operating officer at Japan Blue, says the industrial history of the region is a source of strength, centered around sewing heavy fabrics, including military clothes and obi sashes for kimonos, as well as the cotton and indigo-dyeing native to the area.

That’s why the jeans are for life, Suzuki said, fading and creasing, depending on how they’re worn and how the wearer lives.

“We want to create a product that is a testament to a person’s life,” he said.

Yuri Kageyama is on X: https://x.com/yurikageyama

The Momotaro Jeans shop is pictured in Tokyo, on Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Shop clarks work at Momotaro Jeans shop in Tokyo, on Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Shop clerk Yuta Akagi displays the jeans at Momotaro Jeans shop in Tokyo, on Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Shop clerk Yuta Akagi displays the jeans at Momotaro Jeans shop in Tokyo, on Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Japan Blue Co. President and Chief Operating Officer Masataka Suzuki shows some of the jeans products from Momotaro Jeans at headquarters in Kojima, southwestern Japan. Taken Sept. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Yuri Kageyama)

This shows a closeup of the vintage looms that weave the denim in Kojima, Okayama prefecture, Japan, on Sept. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Yuri Kageyama)

Pairs of jeans flap over Jeans Street in Kojima, Okayama prefecture, Japan, on Sept. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Yuri Kageyama)

A seamstress works on denim trousers at Momotaro Jeans using a vintage sewing machine in Kojima, Okayama prefecture, western Japan, on Sept. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Ayaka McGill)

A weaver operates a handloom at Momotaro Jeans in Kojima, Okayama prefecture, western Japan, on Sept. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Ayaka McGill)

Naomi Takebayashi, a seamstress at Momotaro Jeans, hand-stiches a pair of jeans in Kojima, Okayama prefecture, western Japan, on Sept. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Ayaka McGill)

Naomi Takebayashi, a seamstress at Momotaro Jeans, sewing a pair of jeans in Kojima, Okayama prefecture, western Japan, on Sept. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Ayaka McGill)

Naomi Takebayashi, a seamstress at Momotaro Jeans, works on pairs of jeans in Kojima, Okayama prefecture, western Japan, on Sept. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Ayaka McGill)

Dyeing craftsman Yoshiharu Okamoto shows how he dyes the threads in indigo for denim at Momotaro Jeans in Kojima, Okayama prefecture, Japan, on Sept. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Yuri Kageyama)

A dyer at Momotaro Jeans shows dyed yarn in Kojima, Okayama prefecture, western Japan, on Sept. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Ayaka McGill)

Yoshiharu Okamoto, a dyer at Momotaro Jeans, demonstrates dyeing yarn in indigo for making denim in Kojima, Okayama prefecture, western Japan, on Sept. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Ayaka McGill)

Weaver Shigeru Uchida and his colleague inspect vintage loom machines at Momotaro Jeans in Kojima, Okayama prefecture, western Japan, on Sept. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Ayaka McGill)

Shigeru Uchida, a weaver at Momotaro Jean, examines a vintage loom machine in Kojima, Okayama prefecture, western Japan, on Sept. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Ayaka McGill)

Weaving craftsman Shigeru Uchida examines the evenness of the fabric being woven by the old power looms at Momotaro Jeans in Kojima, Okayama prefecture, Japan, on Sept. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Yuri Kageyama)

Shigeru Uchida, a weaver at Momotaro Jeans, holds a wooden shuttle next to a vintage loom machine in Kojima, Okayama prefecture, Japan, on Sept. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Ayaka McGill)

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Just 17 women have trained a horse that ran in one of the first 151 renditions of the Kentucky Derby. Only six women have ridden in the race.

Far more have a hand in making the opening jewel of the Triple Crown happen.

As Cherie DeVaux looks to become the first woman to train a Derby winner, she is surrounded at Churchill Downs by hundreds of influential women at the track, on the air and behind the scenes on the first Saturday in May.

“I often hear about women being involved with a male-dominated sport, but for me it feels like it’s my sport,” jockey-turned-NBC broadcaster Donna Brothers said. “Women are an integral part of it. You see a lot of exercise riders out there who are women, a lot of female grooms, hotwalkers. Unfortunately, you still don’t see a lot of women in the top names — the top jockeys and the top trainers — but I think we’re getting there.”

Brothers is joined on NBC's broadcast by Britney Eurton, who has been in horse racing her entire life as the daughter of trainer Peter Eurton. Lindsay Schanzer four years ago became the first woman to produce the Kentucky Derby, and the 152th running will be her fifth in charge.

"It’s not just a male-dominated sport but also a male-dominated industry, sports TV, so I feel great pride," said Schanzer, who is one of more than 30 women involved in the production, operation and marketing of the race for NBC Sports. “I feel honored to be in this position and to represent the team that I have as best I can.”

DeVaux, who trains Golden Tempo, earlier this week seemed to downplay her chance at history. Seeing a young girl on the backstretch near her barn made her realize in the moment just how monumental it would be if Golden Tempo puts her in the record books.

“It would be irresponsible of me to not acknowledge that what I’m doing does inadvertently make a difference, even if it’s not my intent,” said DeVaux, who grew up with seven brothers and two sisters. “My brothers are a lot bigger than me, so I think that’s what shaped me. I’ve had to fight and scrap and be heard so that I could survive growing up. And I understand that’s not the same for everybody.”

Brothers, whose mother was a jockey, started thinking about the ramifications for DeVaux after watching Golden Tempo on the track and realizing how good a chance he has. Jena Antonucci with Arcangelo in the Belmont Stakes in 2022 is the only woman to train the winner of a Triple Crown race.

The Derby adds another layer.

"Take gender out of it: She’s a phenomenal trainer," Eurton said of DeVaux. “For her, this is her life. Male or female, this is what she’s wanted to do and she’s very, very good at it. It’s just a matter of time whether it’s Cherie or another talented female trainer.”

An exercise rider for Brad Cox, Katie Tolbert would have a huge hand in the success if Commandment gets the job done on Saturday. And there are countless other women at the barns and around all the horses in the race.

“My dad has a lot of female grooms, assistants,” Eurton said. “It can always be greater, but to have that representation is where the start is. And to have so much female support, I think, is huge.”

AP horse racing: https://apnews.com/hub/horse-racing

Kentucky Derby entrant Commandment works out at Churchill Downs Tuesday, April 28, 2026, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

From left, NBC Sports on-air reporter Britney Eurton, producer Lindsay Schanzer and retired jockey-turned-reporter Donna Brothers pose for a photo at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., Wednesday, April 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Stephen Whyno)

Trainer Cherie DeVaux stands watches from a barn after a workout at Churchill Downs Monday, April 27, 2026, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Trainer Cherie DeVaux stands watches from a barn after a workout at Churchill Downs Monday, April 27, 2026, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)