Tsuka Ito

Samurai Swords/When was cotton first used in Japan?

I’m trying to determine what the earliest possible date that cotton could have been used as ITO,the braid/wrapping over the SAME or ray skin on the TSUKA or handle of Japanese Swords/Katanas.Also,does anyone know which material,cotton,silk or perhaps some other unknown to me, was considered to be the best by the Samurai?

As far as I know, cotton is not generally used for ito wrap in Japan. I know it is sometimes used as a cheap subsitute for silk by some chinese sword manufacturers. Silk is considered the best material for the ito wrap.
I don’t think cotton is indigenous to Japan, so its first appearance was as an import from China where it has always been a major crop. Being as Japan was isolated for centuries and contact with mainland China sporadic, it is nigh on impossible to say when imports of cotton first came to Japan.

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