In a cluttered Kyoto studio an artisan checks his kimono design on a computer. A scarlet peony outlined in white fills the left of the screen, bordered by a hot-pink chrysanthemum, purple tassels of wisteria, orange petals and sage-green leaves. The artisan presses print and the design appears on a piece of silk from an inkjet printer. This is how 70 per cent of kimono are produced in Kyoto today. Dubbed ‘digital yuzen’, the process bears little resemblance to traditional yuzen rice-paste resist dyeing, but it imitates long-established kimono design and is accepted as a contemporary iteration of kimono production – even by artisans that practice conventional kimono-dyeing techniques.
Prior to digital printing, kimono were patterned using three main methods – yuzen (rice-paste resist dyeing), shibori (tie-dyeing) and weaving. Called tegaki yuzen (freehand yuzen) or tsutsugaki yuzen, this method uses a tsutsu, a pipe similar to that used to ice cakes, to apply the rice-paste resist. The design is drawn onto the fabric using the tsutsu, the dye handpainted within the lines of resist according to the pattern, and finally the rice paste washed out of the cloth, leaving the undyed lines and multicoloured design.
The white outlines of leaves and flowers produced using tegaki yuzen can be seen clearly on the NGV’s blue Meiji-period (1868–1912) Summer kimono (yukata) (purchased with funds donated by the late Hon. Michael Watt QC and Cecilie Hall). Indigo dyeing (aizome) is a complex process in which the depth of colour is determined by multiple applications of fermented dye. The lighter blue of this kimono was created by covering the flowers in rice-paste resist after dyeing to protect them, and the background was dyed several more times to create the deeper indigo.
As a highly visible art form, kimono were a way for people to display their aesthetic taste and wealth. In the Edo period (1603–1868) the Tokugawa government issued numerous sumptuary edicts to regulate and control the classes, especially to prevent the lower classes – such as the increasingly wealthy merchants – from flaunting their newfound affluence. Lower classes were restricted in the types of fabrics they could wear, and production techniques were regulated to curb sartorial excess. One such example is the tie-dyeing technique kanoko, or ‘fawn-spot’, shibori, so-called for its minute tie-dyed dots that are said to look like the spots on a young deer’s back. This is the most revered form of shibori because pinching and tying thousands of tiny spots of fabric is technically difficult and labour-intensive.
The Tokugawa government banned kanoko shibori in 1683 for being too extravagant. But while many such edicts were issued throughout the Edo period, the public dubbed them ‘three-day laws’ based on their lack of effectiveness. Officials struggled to enforce the rules and townspeople looked to ways of flouting them by wearing forbidden fabrics or colours such as red or purple beneath their everyday clothing, or lining their kimono with higher quality cloth.
Artisans also adapted to these edicts by developing new techniques that imitated forbidden methods. The high quality of one early nineteenth-century Katabira kosode summer kimono with bouquets and scattered fans (supported by Dr Peter Chu) is emphasised by peonies, heart-shaped wild ginger and threads of wisteria flowers picked out in gold thread and deeply coloured embroidery. Katabira were light, unlined robes of finely woven ramie or hemp cloth, used in the Edo period for the summer clothing of the upper classes. This kimono illustrates the technique of suri-hitta in rust and ochre tones on the fans, leaves and flowers. Suri-hitta is pattern applied using a stencil and appears as sections of small squares with a tiny dot of colour in the centre, a substitute for the prohibited kanoko shibori. Referencing a difficult, labour-intensive and highly valued technique such as kanoko shibori also served to elevate the perceived quality of the garment.
There are more than a hundred kinds of shibori involving folding, twisting, sewing, compressing or binding. The NGV’s Arimatsu shibori yukata kimono illustrates several stitched shibori techniques. Kamiate shibori uses paper stitched or glued onto the fabric, creating the leaf interiors, while lines of stitching called ori-nui shibori have been gathered tight before dyeing to create the outlines of the leaves, frog and water. The dramatic collar is produced using a rare, technically difficult method called mino shibori that is no longer practised, whereby the cloth is pulled on a hook, folded and bound. Mino refers to the traditional Japanese straw rain cape, which the collar is said to resemble.
Artisans of the Meiji period continued to imitate shibori using other methods of dyeing such as stencil rice-paste resist (katazome). This was likely for commercial purposes – patterns could be mass-produced more economically. The repeating pattern of flying geese, reeds and vertical stripes on a Meiji-period cotton men’s Indigo summer kimono with geese and reeds (supported by the late Hon. Michael Watt KC and Cecilie Hall) was created using a medium-sized stencil (chugata zome). The cloud-like sections with their blurred borders imitate shibori but have also been produced by stencilling. In addition, each cloud either contains stripes or black dots that mimic different shibori tying techniques such as the loop-binding miura shibori, which produces a water-like circular design. The black crosshatches included in the pattern appear to mimic woven ikat, referencing yet another technique.
A further example of stencilling techniques used to copy shibori can be found on another Meiji-period cotton kimono on display in Kimono, this one featuring tigers (Indigo summer kimono with tigers, also purchased with funds donated by the late Hon. Michael Watt KC and Cecilie Hall). The bamboo background pattern with its wavy intertwined lines imitates arashi shibori. Arashi means ‘storm’, and arashi shibori, created by wrapping the fabric around a pole, binding it with string and compressing to produce a rippled pattern, is said to resemble driving rain.
Today, artisans continue to produce these patterns by alternative methods. In Kyoto, the digital yuzen artisan also imitates traditional dye methods such as tegaki yuzen by outlining his floral images in white borders. Tie-dyeing is more difficult to copy because its handmade attributes result in a lack of uniformity. To create the irregularities of traditional kanoko shibori, the artisan scans pieces of hand-created shibori into their designs, continuing a centuries-long practice of imitation.
Dr Jenny Hall is a Teaching Associate at the University of Melbourne.