Methods of dyeing with Indigo in Japan, Japanese techniques Shibori & Boro and the history of the indigo plant.

Parts of the knowledge in this blog derives from the book Indigo The Color that Changed the World by Catherine Legrand, Thames & Hudson. In this book you can find knowledge about indigo and practices all around the world.

THE INDIGO PLANT INTRODUCED TO JAPAN

The indigo plant Polygonum tinctorium Aiton was brought to Japan through Chinese dyers. Women played a vital role in the domestic dyeing of indigo of a family’s clothing. Later on this process became a commercial operation meaning that each village established a dye house. Some of the materials that garments such as kimonos and trousers were made of were hemp, ramie, banana, mulberry silk or even cotton, although cotton was not a native fiber to the country but was introduced through Portuguese and Chinese in the mid-15th century.

The Little Indigo Museum near Kyoto

Back in Autumn 2019 I visited The Little Indigo Museum located in the little village of Miyama 2-hours from Kyoto. It was quite the journey to get there taking several trains and a kawai (cute in Japanese) bus with local students going to school on a Saturday. The man behind the little charming museum is Mr. Hiroyuki Shindo and his partner Chikako. Mr. Hiroyuki is an artist graduated from the School of Fine Arts in Kyoto known for his own Shibori method. The museum houses a small indigo textile collection from several countries and continents - a collection of 30 years.

When I visited the museum textiles showcased were primarily kimonos with the Boro technique and Shibori. Mr. Hiroyuki has somewhat invented his own technique called Shindigo which means new indigo. He showed us the technique during our visit - very long cotton pieces (12-14m) are pleated and wrapped around two cylinders that are being immersed in indigo. The result is fine stripes of both blue and white. “Blue wouldn’t come alive if it didn’t have white as a contrast”.

DYEING WITH INDIGO IN JAPAN

The Japanese word to indigo dyeing is Aizome which also means sky blue/water. There are various ways of preparing an indigo dye vat and this is determined by each dyer. In Hiroyuki’s case he uses lime and heated soda water. The water has in fact been filtered through wood ash and then boiled. Sake is also used. Indeed when the dye vats were stirred a strong smell of ammonia filled up the room - this smell indicates the bacteria working. Finally rice bran is also added and then it takes a few days for the oxygen to decrease and this shows by a blue foam ai bana meaning blue flower. In total a dye vat needs 7-10 days to become ready for use. In other parts of the world the dyeing process can differ from country to country.

Boro & Shibori techniques

The Boro technique means rag/scrap and is the traditional craft rooted of patchwork in Japan, where layered and mended pieces of fabrics were used to repair, reinforce or recreate garments.

During the Edo period, Japanese peasants found it essential to maximize the use and longevity of their textiles, so no piece of fabric was ever discarded. At that time, particularly in the north, peasants lacked access to durable cotton fabric and had to rely on homespun hemp fabric, which wore out more quickly.

Garments were repeatedly mended using fabric scraps dyed in indigo or earthy brown tones and were passed down through generations. Each added scrap, with its own unique story, mapped the family's history and heritage. The evolution of patterns and motifs in the reinforcement stitching, known as sashiko, added beautiful decorative elements to these garments.

Shibori is a traditional Japanese technique for manually resist dyeing fabric to create patterns. The earliest known example of shibori-dyed cloth in Japan dates back to the 8th century.

There are countless ways to bind, stitch, fold, twist, or compress cloth for shibori, each resulting in unique patterns. Each method aims to achieve a specific outcome while also working in harmony with the type of cloth used. Thus, the shibori technique depends not only on the desired pattern but also on the characteristics of the cloth being dyed.

INDIGO PLANT FACTS

The most important dye of the world for several centuries used for textiles and wall paintings in the ancient world. The Indigo word derived from the Latin word Indicum. It’s a molecule extracted from the leaves of ‘Indigofera tinctoria’. First cultivated in the Indus Valley more than 5,000 years ago where that plant was called Nilah meaning dark blue. 

Method of production: Indigo leaves are soaked/put in a vat warm water with alkaline, then logs are put together with the leaves to keep them submerged until the dye is drawn out by fermentation and when the water turns/becomes green it’s transferred to another/second tank. Indigo workers stand inside the tank beating the liquid actively to start the oxidization process while a foamy surface begins to show. The liquid becomes solidified (precipitate) and is then moved to a copper cauldron to be boiled until it becomes a paste form. In the end/finally the dye is ready and is then dried and sold as cakes of ‘blue-gold’. In 1880 synthetic indigo was developed.

There are several types of Indigo plants that can be found around the world:

• Indigofera family: Indigofera tinctoria (from Mesoamerica then grown in tropical Asia), Indigofera arrecta (from East Africa then grown in tropical & subtropical Asia) & Indigofera coerlea (North India, Arabian Peninsula).

• Polygonum family (Southeast Asia, China, Japan)

• Golden Triangle Indigo (Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Bhutan, Bangladesh)

• African indigo

• The Wrightia family: Pala indigo from India

• Central American indigo

• South American Indigo