What is Japanese indigo fabric called?
ai-zome
In Japan, indigo dye is known as ai-zome. The dye can actually be extracted from a variety of plants, which helps to explain its global popularity. Here, it is extracted from polygonum, a species of flowering plant related to buckwheat. Ai-zome is a strong dyeing process.
Why is indigo so popular in Japan?
In Japan, indigo dyeing is known as aizome, and its popularity dates back to the Edo period (1603-1868), when brighter colors were reserved for the higher social classes. The samurai wore indigo clothing to prevent wound infections, and firefighters favored indigo fabric for its flame retardant properties.
What is Japanese indigo?
Japanese Indigo, also known as Dyer’s Knotweed, is an annual, growing to 75 cm tall. It is a member of the family Polygonaceae and it is related to rhubarb and dock. The leaves are soft and dark green, and the plant has swollen jointed stem nodes, which are somewhat hairy.
Where is indigo grown in Japan?
Shikoku
Tokushima is one of four prefectures in Shikoku—Japan’s smallest major island, located around 250 km southwest of Kyoto— and it is one of Japan’s main producers of natural indigo dye. Dyeing fabric using plant-based natural dyes has long been part of Tokushima culture.
What is special about indigo dye?
Indigo can dye lots of materials and is especially good for cotton (indigo was the first dye used to color the original blue jeans) but also perfect for linens, silk, wool, leather and feathers and even materials like cane, wicker, shells and buttons.
Is Japanese indigo toxic?
Meanwhile, because indigo isn’t water soluble, more toxic chemicals – corrosive to workers and deadly to marine life – need to be added to turn it into a liquid dye.
What is indigo dye used for?
The primary use for indigo is as a dye for cotton yarn, mainly used in the production of denim cloth suitable for blue jeans; on average, a pair of blue jeans requires just 3 grams (0.11 oz) to 12 grams (0.42 oz) of dye. Smaller quantities are used in the dyeing of wool and silk.
Why is indigo so important?
Indigo was the foundation of centuries-old textile traditions throughout West Africa. In North America, indigo was introduced into colonial South Carolina by Eliza Lucas, where it became the colony’s second-most important cash crop (after rice). As a major export crop, indigo supported plantation slavery there.
What makes indigo so special?
The most special thing about indigo is that, for thousands of years, it was the only good blue dye in existence. Unlike most natural dyes, indigo can be used without metal-based mordants such as alum, tin, or chrome, which stay in the fabric after dyeing, and which are toxic if ingested.
What is Vatting of indigo?
Indigo dyestuff, extracted from its leaves, had been used in various primitive dyeing processes for years. This process which is called as “vatting”, is supposed to be the origin of vat dyes.
Why was indigo so valuable?
While indigo traces its roots to India, the African slave trade made it exceedingly valuable on that continent. Enslaved Africans carried the knowledge of indigo cultivation to the United States, and in the 1700s, the profits from indigo outpaced those of sugar and cotton.
Why is Japanese indigo dye used with clothing?
Japanese indigo dye is prized for both its visual beauty as well as its more practical qualities. The dye is used with clothing for both these reasons. Fashion designers and jean makers also love indigo dye because unlike cheaply produced chemical dyes, this natural plant dye gets better with age.
What is the oldest known indigo-dyed fabric?
Anthropologists recently uncovered the oldest known indigo-dyed fabric in Peru’s Andes Mountains dating back an astonishing 6,000 years. In Japan, indigo-dyed – or ai-zome – textiles can be traced to the 8th century, but peak-production of indigo farming and dyeing was in the Edo period between 1600 and 1868.
Where did indindigo grow in Japan?
Indigo grew throughout Shikoku but flourished mainly in towns around Tokushima and Kagawa. The climate of Tokushima, its rich soil, and abundant water from the Yoshino River created ideal conditions for the harvest of the Indigo plant.
What are the different types of Japanese textiles?
Silk may be the best known Japanese textile because of its stunning beauty and value for fashioning luxurious kimonos, but in pre-industrial Japan only the nobility and upper classes were permitted to wear silk clothing. In contrast to courtly silk garments, commoners dressed in humble garments made from homespun coarse hemp and cotton fabrics.
