Preamble
For your convenience I have listed other posts on Japanese textiles on this blogspot:
Discharge Thundercloud
The Basic Kimono Pattern
The Kimono and Japanese Textile Designs
Traditional Japanese Arabesque Patterns (Part I)
Textile Dyeing Patterns of Japan
Traditional Japanese Arabesque Patterns (Part II)
Sarasa Arabesque Patterns (Part III)
Contemporary Japanese Textile Creations
Shibori (Tie-Dying)
History of the Kimono
A Textile Tour of Japan - Part I
A Textile Tour of Japan - Part II
The History of the Obi
Japanese Embroidery (Shishu)
Japanese Dyed Textiles
Aizome (Japanese Indigo Dyeing)
Stencil-Dyed Indigo Arabesque Patterns (Part V)
Japanese Paintings on Silk
Tsutsugaki - Freehand Paste-Resist Dyeing
Street Play in Tokyo
Birds and Flowers in Japanese Textile Designs
Japanese Colors and Inks on Paper From the Idemitsu Collection
Yuzen: Multicolored Past-Resist Dyeing - Part 1
Yuzen: Multi-colored Paste-Resist Dyeing - Part II
Japanese Dyed Textiles[1]
In Japan there is no division between fine and decorative arts. Craftsmanship is very highly valued. The hands of many many artists and craftsman are still busily and beautifully decorating textiles in Japan, and dyeing is one of the processes they use most distinctively and creatively.
A dyed and screen printed Japanese textile.
From ancient times, people the world over have been dyeing textiles, and the process ranges from simply rubbing a leaf over woven fibers to the sophisticated techniques of tie-dyeing and yuzen.
Yuzen - Japanese Textile.
Whatever the technique, dyeing has offered nearly unlimited possibilities of self expression and these are marvellously exploited in Japanese textiles.
Different dyeing techniques displayed on cloth wrappers (furoshiki) of silk crepé.
The variety of designs applied to fabrics in Japan is limitless. The names of most colors in Japanese are derived from their dye sources, and the colors themselves were seen as the essence of the 'spirit' within the plant. When transferred to cloth, the spirit in the color would protect the garment's wearer. This belief may have come from the medicinal qualities possessed by many dye plants.
Left: Indigo-dyed Cotton Yukata, Indianapolis Museum (USA).
Right: Shibori Dyed Kosode Kimono, Metropolitan Museum (USA).
As elsewhere in the world, colors also signify social status, and certain colors were assigned to each of the court ranks. The color purple was placed highest because of its rarity, while abundant indigo was the lowest.
Enthronement of the Japanese emperor.
Note the use of purple.
Whatever the color, however, the dyeing process itself is extremely difficult, time-consuming and fraught with possibilities for failure. Even for the experienced professional dyers, the results of the dyeing process remain unpredictable. Unexpected bleeding of the color, miscalculation of dye materials, unfavourable weather conditions and the fact that most errors cannot be corrected once the dye has been applied to the fabric - all plague the dyer, who must be very skilful, experienced, and well-trained to achieve pleasing results.
Dye bled quilt.
Until the middle of the nineteenth century, when chemical dyes were invented, dyes were extracted from natural substances. Crushed insects, charcoal soot, and ground minerals were all sources of dyes, but most dyes came from plants. Vegetable dyes combined with mordants such as iron, ash lye, plum vinegar, or alum. These mordants, applied before or after dyeing, fixed the color on the fabric and at the same time controlled the resulting hues. Several colors can be obtained from one dye source depending on the choice of the mordent. Vegetable dyes are still used today, mostly by crafters rather than being the base load for industry.
Making natural dyes with fruits.
One of the most characteristic of Japanese dyes is indigo or ai. Indigo was brought to Japan from China some time before the third century. At first it was applied to the fabric by rubbing the leaves of the mountain indigo, yama ai, over material or by immersing the fabric in a dye solution made by soaking the cut leaves of the plant in water. By the Nara period, yama ai had been replaced by 'buckwheat indigo' or made ai, and the method of fermented dyeing used today had been mastered. From the Edo period, with the widespread cultivation of cotton, indigo-dyed fabric became an important product. Today, the number of traditional dyers has been diminished, but fortunately the interest in natural dyes has not totally disappeared and indigo blue, in all its shades, is still very popular in Japan.
A collection of Kanji Hama’s beautifully hand-patterned and indigo-dyed fabrics along with tools of the craft.
Credit: Photograph by Kyoko Hamada. Styled by Theresa Rivera. Photographer’s assistant: Garrett Milanovich. Styling assistant: Sarice Olson. Indigo pieces courtesy of Kanji Hama.
Another group of coloring agents, pigments, has been used to dye fabrics in Okinawa and as a fill-in color for small motifs on textiles on the mainland. These pigments, organic and inorganic, are combined with liquid soybean extract. They do not penetrate the fabric, but the protein in the soybean liquid hardens, bonding the pigment to the material.
Pigment colored Ryusou kimono, referred to as ‘ushinchi’ in the local language, are easily distinguished from the iconic Japanese kimono in a number of ways. First and foremost, the sleeves of Okinawan kimono are much more open, allowing for a tropical breeze to flow through. Also, the fabric, made from fibers of the native bashofu plant, is much thinner than most mainland kimono.
Representative dyeing processes and techniques have flourished over the years in the Japanese textile history. These include tie-dyeing and paste-resist dyeing, both of which make extensive use of the indigo dye. Below color samples shows the wide range of vegetable dye plalettes that can be produced.
Reference:
[1] S. Yang and R. ZM. Narasin, Textile Art of Japan, Tokyo (1989).
For your convenience I have listed other posts on Japanese textiles on this blogspot:
Discharge Thundercloud
The Basic Kimono Pattern
The Kimono and Japanese Textile Designs
Traditional Japanese Arabesque Patterns (Part I)
Textile Dyeing Patterns of Japan
Traditional Japanese Arabesque Patterns (Part II)
Sarasa Arabesque Patterns (Part III)
Contemporary Japanese Textile Creations
Shibori (Tie-Dying)
History of the Kimono
A Textile Tour of Japan - Part I
A Textile Tour of Japan - Part II
The History of the Obi
Japanese Embroidery (Shishu)
Japanese Dyed Textiles
Aizome (Japanese Indigo Dyeing)
Stencil-Dyed Indigo Arabesque Patterns (Part V)
Japanese Paintings on Silk
Tsutsugaki - Freehand Paste-Resist Dyeing
Street Play in Tokyo
Birds and Flowers in Japanese Textile Designs
Japanese Colors and Inks on Paper From the Idemitsu Collection
Yuzen: Multicolored Past-Resist Dyeing - Part 1
Yuzen: Multi-colored Paste-Resist Dyeing - Part II
Japanese Dyed Textiles[1]
In Japan there is no division between fine and decorative arts. Craftsmanship is very highly valued. The hands of many many artists and craftsman are still busily and beautifully decorating textiles in Japan, and dyeing is one of the processes they use most distinctively and creatively.
From ancient times, people the world over have been dyeing textiles, and the process ranges from simply rubbing a leaf over woven fibers to the sophisticated techniques of tie-dyeing and yuzen.
Whatever the technique, dyeing has offered nearly unlimited possibilities of self expression and these are marvellously exploited in Japanese textiles.
The variety of designs applied to fabrics in Japan is limitless. The names of most colors in Japanese are derived from their dye sources, and the colors themselves were seen as the essence of the 'spirit' within the plant. When transferred to cloth, the spirit in the color would protect the garment's wearer. This belief may have come from the medicinal qualities possessed by many dye plants.
Right: Shibori Dyed Kosode Kimono, Metropolitan Museum (USA).
As elsewhere in the world, colors also signify social status, and certain colors were assigned to each of the court ranks. The color purple was placed highest because of its rarity, while abundant indigo was the lowest.
Note the use of purple.
Whatever the color, however, the dyeing process itself is extremely difficult, time-consuming and fraught with possibilities for failure. Even for the experienced professional dyers, the results of the dyeing process remain unpredictable. Unexpected bleeding of the color, miscalculation of dye materials, unfavourable weather conditions and the fact that most errors cannot be corrected once the dye has been applied to the fabric - all plague the dyer, who must be very skilful, experienced, and well-trained to achieve pleasing results.
Until the middle of the nineteenth century, when chemical dyes were invented, dyes were extracted from natural substances. Crushed insects, charcoal soot, and ground minerals were all sources of dyes, but most dyes came from plants. Vegetable dyes combined with mordants such as iron, ash lye, plum vinegar, or alum. These mordants, applied before or after dyeing, fixed the color on the fabric and at the same time controlled the resulting hues. Several colors can be obtained from one dye source depending on the choice of the mordent. Vegetable dyes are still used today, mostly by crafters rather than being the base load for industry.
One of the most characteristic of Japanese dyes is indigo or ai. Indigo was brought to Japan from China some time before the third century. At first it was applied to the fabric by rubbing the leaves of the mountain indigo, yama ai, over material or by immersing the fabric in a dye solution made by soaking the cut leaves of the plant in water. By the Nara period, yama ai had been replaced by 'buckwheat indigo' or made ai, and the method of fermented dyeing used today had been mastered. From the Edo period, with the widespread cultivation of cotton, indigo-dyed fabric became an important product. Today, the number of traditional dyers has been diminished, but fortunately the interest in natural dyes has not totally disappeared and indigo blue, in all its shades, is still very popular in Japan.
Credit: Photograph by Kyoko Hamada. Styled by Theresa Rivera. Photographer’s assistant: Garrett Milanovich. Styling assistant: Sarice Olson. Indigo pieces courtesy of Kanji Hama.
Another group of coloring agents, pigments, has been used to dye fabrics in Okinawa and as a fill-in color for small motifs on textiles on the mainland. These pigments, organic and inorganic, are combined with liquid soybean extract. They do not penetrate the fabric, but the protein in the soybean liquid hardens, bonding the pigment to the material.
Representative dyeing processes and techniques have flourished over the years in the Japanese textile history. These include tie-dyeing and paste-resist dyeing, both of which make extensive use of the indigo dye. Below color samples shows the wide range of vegetable dye plalettes that can be produced.
Reference:
[1] S. Yang and R. ZM. Narasin, Textile Art of Japan, Tokyo (1989).
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