Page 341 - JAPAN THE SHAPING OFDAIMYO CULTURE 1185-1868

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202 Ddbuku era, it was also used for civilian clothing.
appliqué and stencil dyeing on leather
1.89.0(35) The leather was stretched taut over a slow
fire of such materials as straw or pine nee-
l
W. 141.0 (55 /z) dles; typically, straw produces a brown
Muromachi period, loth century color, as in this ddbuku, and pine needles
gray. The longer the smoking period, the
Ueda Municipal Museum,
darker the shade that resulted, and the
Nagano Prefecture background pattern of this ddbuku was
Important Cultural Property
created by smoking the darker areas longer
The dobuku was a short jacket worn by than the lighter. This technique employed
high-ranking samurai from the late Muro- a stenciled resist. The whole piece of
machi to early Edo periods. This leather leather would be smoked till the lighter of
example, with seven white leather paulow- the desired shades had been achieved.
nia crests appliquéd to the front and back, Then a stencil of the intended pattern,
is said to have been given in 1568 by Oda with cutouts wherever the lighter color
Nobunaga (1534-1582) to Matsudaira Nobu- was required, would be laid over the
kazu (1539-1624), founder of the Matsu- leather and a resist material such as wax or
daira family of the castle town Ueda in gum applied through the cutouts. This re-
Shinano Province (present-day Nagano sist material prevented further darkening
Prefecture). of the leather beneath it. The smoking
Leather with color or designs added process would then be continued until the
by dye or smoke was often used on arms darker shade had been reached on the un-
and armor from the Heian through the resisted parts of the leather. Finally the
Muromachi periods; in the early modern leather would be removed from the smoke
and the resist material picked off, reveal-

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