Everything the scan holds on this record, grouped by subject. Blue bars show how much information is held; they are not positive or negative scores. Fields with nothing behind them are counted, not listed.
Features
3 of 5
Feature 1
Every Pure Blue Japan garment is made from cotton and indigo, with selvedge denim woven from yarn that is thread dyed first using the 'Rope Dying' method to create the brand's original fabric in various shades of specially blended indigo. Pure Blue Japan expresses a strong affection for the beautiful blue of natural indigo, though the site states no fibre percentage.
Feature 2
All Pure Blue Japan products are entirely produced domestically in Japan, made by Syoaiya Inc. of Kurashiki-city in the Kojima district of Okayama, where Japanese craftsmanship is used for every process including dyeing, weaving, sewing and distressing. Pure Blue Japan and Syoaiya are completely the same products, manufactured on weaving and knitting machines specially customised for the company.
Feature 3
Pure Blue Japan is known for its slubby indigo selvedge denim, developed through many trials and errors, and the brand emphasises durability, craftsmanship and enjoying the way indigo ages and changes over years of wear. Pure Blue Japan makes no claim of GOTS, OEKO-TEX, B Corp, organic or any environmental certification anywhere on its site.
Materials and composition
13 of 29
H3 Q8: Materials (adapts to brand: 100% cotton? / where is the linen from? / hemp?)
Is Pure Blue Japan 100% cotton?
Plant fibre %
100
Fibre Breakdown
67 (100.0%) 100% plant | 0 other compositions
Fibre Breakdown (table)
FibreStyles%Measure100% plant (organic/regenerative cotton, linen, hemp)67100.0%Natural
Other materials: origin
Indigo rope dyed cotton warp; sulphur dyed recycled cotton weft
Incomplete composition explanation
No incomplete percentage compositions were recorded.
Plant fibre percent
100
Key facts plant materials
Cotton
Key facts animal materials
None
Key facts chemical materials
None
Key facts organic materials
Not specified
Key facts synthetic materials
None
Materials used
Cotton
Scan result
19 of 57
Scan note (above product table)
Complete saved catalogue reused: 67 SKUs scanned, 0 filtered, 67 scored. Every included SKU has composition evidence and its own source URL. No rescan was needed.
Score (1-5)
5
Score label
Fully natural
Total styles scanned
67
Last scanned
2026-08-04
Score CSS class
htt-score-5
Supply-chain summary
Pure Blue Japan is a Kurashiki, Okayama denim maker whose fabric is woven at old Okayama mills on vintage shuttle and low tension looms, using premium cotton from the USA and India plus organic cotton in its organic series and rope dyed indigo. Pure Blue Japan discloses cotton origin countries and the Okayama weaving and dyeing region, giving reasonable fibre to garment context for denim. However most of this detail is documented by retailers such as Okayama Denim rather than by the brand's own site, and Pure Blue Japan names no specific mill, spinner or cotton farm and publishes no formal supplier list.
Sourcing transparency score (1-5)
3
Full catalogue scan?
yes
Reason / scan status
Yes. 100% of the saved catalogue is accounted for; every included SKU has complete composition evidence and its own source URL.
Publication status
verified
Method version
Throne Standard saved-evidence reuse 2026.09
In-scope catalogue total
67
Products read
67
Worst-case complete result (%)
100
Best-case complete result (%)
100
Public qualification note
Direct saved-SKU scan recalculation: all 67 in-scope CSV rows carry a classification; 67 are fully plant fibre. The saved export retains 67 row-level source URLs. This is a CSV-derived catalogue result, not a fresh source-URL verification.
Sustainability score
5
Key findings
Materials: Cotton
Made in: Pure Blue Japan garments are made in Japan, specifically in the Okayama region (the traditional heart of Japanese denim manufacturing), where the brand is based
Certifications: Not publicly documented
Health and safety
1 of 3
H3 Q6: Is [Brand] non-toxic / PFAS-free?
Is Pure Blue Japan non-toxic and safe for skin?
Certification
5 of 8
H3 Q7: Is [Brand] GOTS / certified?
Is Pure Blue Japan certified?
OEKO-TEX® Standard 100
Pure Blue Japan does not hold OEKO-TEX certification.
Other Certifications
Pure Blue Japan is not a certified B Corporation.
Cotton: type / certification
Long staple premium cotton; organic cotton (organic series) and recycled cotton weft
Key facts certifications
Not publicly documented
Sourcing and supply chain
11 of 61
Overall: where this info comes from
Traceability level
Cotton: country of origin
Wool: origin + farm + mulesing status
Weaving / knitting mill: name + country
Ownership and legal entity
2 of 17
Owner
Ken-Ichi Iwaya is the owner of Pure Blue Japan.
Identity
19 of 28
Brand name
Pure Blue Japan
H3 Q1: Is [Brand] sustainable / ethical?
Is Pure Blue Japan sustainable and ethical?
Answer 1
Documented facts: Pure Blue Japan is a genuine independent Japanese denim brand (founded 1997, Okayama, by Ken-ichi Iwaya), still trading, making its garments in Japan on vintage shuttle looms as a small-scale, small-batch operation. These points are corroborated across the brand's official site, a founder interview (Robin Denim, 2019), editorial profiles (Heddels), and multiple current retailers.
H3 Q2: Where is [Brand] made?
Where is Pure Blue Japan made?
Answer 2
Pure Blue Japan garments are made in Japan, specifically in the Okayama region (the traditional heart of Japanese denim manufacturing), where the brand is based. Production uses vintage/customized shuttle looms at small partnered mills in Okayama (shuttle looms cited from Ibara, Okayama) with rope-dyed indigo yarns and specialised sewing machines. Retailers describe the raw cotton as sourced from the United States and India, then spun, dyed, woven, and sewn in Japan. Every source consistently states the brand is "100% made in Japan / made in Okayama."
H3 Q3: Who owns [Brand]?
Who owns Pure Blue Japan?
Answer 3
Pure Blue Japan (often abbreviated PBJ) is an independent, founder-owned Japanese denim brand founded in 1997 by Ken-ichi Iwaya in Kurashiki-city, Okayama, Japan. It is not owned by a larger parent/holding company; a 2019 founder interview describes it as a small independent operation run by Iwaya with a team of around five people. The brand was originally called "Syoaiya" (after "shoai," the term for natural indigo dyeing), before adopting the Pure Blue Japan name. Note: "Blue in Green" is a separate New York retailer that helped introduce PBJ to Western markets from ~2005 and is not the brand's owner.
H3 Q4: Is [Brand] legit / worth it?
Is Pure Blue Japan legit and worth it?
Answer 4
Pure Blue Japan is a real, legitimate, and currently-trading business. Its official website (purebluejapan.org) is active with a functioning e-commerce store and current product prices (e.g., jeans around $235 $380, natural-indigo/heavyweight models up to ~$420), and the brand is stocked by numerous established current specialty retailers worldwide including Okayama Denim, Self Edge, Blue Owl Workshop, Blue in Green Soho, Clutch Cafe, Hinoya, and Redcast Heritage. The brand has a documented ~28-year history (founded 1997) and a well-known founder. This is confirmed as the clothing/denim brand and not a same-name business in another industry.
H3 Q5: Is [Brand] fast fashion?
Is Pure Blue Japan fast fashion?
Answer 5
Pure Blue Japan is the opposite of fast fashion; it is a slow, small-batch, artisanal selvedge denim maker. The founder described the operation as a small team (about five people) producing "100% original" textured selvedge denim on customised vintage shuttle looms at small partnered mills, with seasonal and limited-edition runs rather than mass production. High price points ($235 $420+ per garment), heavyweight indigo-dyed selvedge fabrics, and low-volume production on slow vintage looms all place it firmly in the slow-fashion / heritage-craft category.
Answer 6
Certifications: Not publicly documented. No third-party certifications (GOTS, OEKO-TEX, Fair Trade, B Corp, or European Flax) are stated on Pure Blue Japan's official website or in any retailer or editorial source reviewed. Targeted searches for PBJ plus these certifications returned no brand-specific results. Pure Blue Japan markets itself on craft and traditional indigo dyeing (aizome) rather than on formal certification schemes; the absence of documented certifications should not be read as either compliance or non-compliance, only that none are verifiable..
Answer 7
Pure Blue Japan does not publicly document a recognised textile certification such as GOTS or OEKO-TEX in the sources we checked. What we can confirm is the material itself: our scan of 67 Pure Blue Japan styles found 100.0% is 100% plant fibre, so Pure Blue Japan's natural-fibre standing rests on its composition rather than a certificate.
Methodology note (page footer)
How we scan. Every figure on this page comes from the Throne Standard scan: we read the fibre composition off each live product on the brand's own site, style by style, and count only single-fibre plant cloth (cotton, linen, hemp) as natural. Animal fibres such as wool, silk and cashmere and plastic-based synthetics such as polyester, nylon and elastane sit outside the plant-fibre figure, and regenerated fibres such as viscose, bamboo, modal and Tencel are counted as semi-synthetic. Percentages are calculated over the styles that state a composition; anything unlabelled is shown separately.
Answer 8
So many Pure Blue Japan basics are pure cotton, but Pure Blue Japan's fitted and active styles typically add a small share of synthetic.
Contact Email
info@purebluejapan.jp
Cotton: named farm / region / co-op
Not disclosed
Dye house: name + country
Rope (yarn) indigo dyeing in Japan
Brand site readable
yes
Energy, water and land
1 of 2
Claims and evidence
5 of 17
Verified by
HTT research (brand policy pages)
Verification status
What this means
Why excluded
Website verified
Delivery and shipping
3 of 3
Shipping
Pure Blue Japan offers free shipping on orders of 16,000 yen or more, tax excluded, nationwide within Japan. For smaller Pure Blue Japan orders, shipping is 1,300 yen for Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu, 2,000 yen for Hokkaido and 2,500 yen for Okinawa, all tax excluded.
Shipping International
International shipping is not available for Pure Blue Japan, as delivery is limited to within Japan only. Customers outside Japan are directed to contact Pure Blue Japan to find local distributors.
Shipping Notes
Pure Blue Japan delivers to Japan domestic addresses only. Free delivery applies to Pure Blue Japan orders of 16,000 yen or more, tax excluded, with rates of 1,300 to 2,500 yen otherwise depending on the region.
Price and commerce
1 of 8
Price tier
$$$$
Further detail
16 of 67
Excerpt
Is Pure Blue Japan a sustainable clothing brand? See the real fibre breakdown, plant, animal or synthetic, before you buy.
POC
Pure Blue Japan clothing brand ownership is identified as people of colour (Japanese).
LGBT
Pure Blue Japan clothing brand ownership is not identified as LGBTQ+.
Woman Owned
Pure Blue Japan clothing brand is not a woman owned clothing brand.
GOTS
Pure Blue Japan does not hold GOTS certification.
1% for the planet
Pure Blue Japan clothing brand 1% for the Planet membership status is not stated.
Vegan
Pure Blue Japan clothing brand vegan status is not stated.
Report Post
61247
Clean & Safe: last checked
2026-07-29
Supplier disclosure
Partial
Last checked
2026-09-26
How it was read
Throne identifies the eligible textile products in Pure Blue Japan's catalogue, inspects each product for published material evidence and requires at least 20 scoreable textile SKUs before publishing a brand score. The score uses only products with enough published material information to classify. Brand non-disclosure and technical read failures are reported separately. Non-textile products are excluded rather than counted as a pass or a fail.
Website check
page identifies as Pure Blue Japan and sells clothing (checked 2026-08-18)
Coverage method pre dash fix
Every product listed in the brand's live catalogue is retrieved and its stated fibre composition read individually - from the product page, the store's own product data and its material labels. A fibre percentage is published only when 100% of the catalogue has been read. Items with no clothing textile (gift cards, packaging, jewellery, homeware) are excluded from the percentage rather than counted as a pass or a fail.
