Leather - kawa (English spelling) leather

Japanese: 皮∥革 - かわ（英語表記）leather

The skin that is removed from an animal is called hide, and the product obtained by removing the hair from hide and tanning it is called tanned leather or leather. The term leather includes everything from untanned rawhide to leather. Fur is tanned with the fur still attached, and is included in the broad sense of the word leather. At first, hides similar to rawhide with a low degree of processing were used, but gradually methods of tanning with chemicals were devised, and leather with properties suited to different uses was produced. Here we will discuss natural leather, but for synthetic leather, which is widely manufactured and used as a substitute, please refer to the relevant article.

Source: Heibonsha World Encyclopedia, 2nd Edition Information

Japanese:

動物からはいだ皮膚を皮といい，皮から毛を除き，なめしてえられる製品を〈なめし革〉〈革（かく∥かわ）〉という。なめしていない生皮から革までを含めて皮革（ひかく）と総称する。毛皮は毛をつけたままなめしたもので，広義には皮革に含める。はじめは加工度の低い生皮に近いものが用いられたが，しだいに薬品でなめす方法が考案され，用途に応じた性質をもつ革が作られるようになった。ここでは天然の皮革について述べるが，代用として広く製造･利用されている〈合成皮革〉についてはその項目を参照されたい。

出典　株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典第２版について　情報

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