Page 342 - JAPAN THE SHAPING OFDAIMYO CULTURE 1185-1868

ing the lighter shade wherever it had been yoshi's crest (mon), in a stiff, heraldic line To make the design on this ddbuku,
applied. This ddbuku is a fine and early ex- across the purple-dyed shoulders and more the paulownia and arrow motifs were re-
ample of the komon (small pattern) stencil freely disposed on the white midsection, served in white while their respective
technique, developed from the stencil and feathered arrow shafts, forming an- backgrounds were dyed purple and green;
methods used earlier on leather for armor, other rigid line, on the green lower border. in the midsection the process was reversed
and often employed in the Edo period for The contrast of the regular, static arrange- and the background reserved in white
the clothing of the warrior class. KS ment above and below with the looser while the paulownia were dyed purple,
composition in the middle makes for a blue, and two shades of greerr. The divi-
263 Dôbuku bold, dynamic design. sion of the background into contrasting
shibori dyeing on silk The fabric is nerinuki, a plain-weave color areas, the use of motifs from nature,
1.115.0 (44 7/s) silk of raw (unglossed) warps and de- and the overall effect of lightness, soft-
design are charac-
ness, and delicacy in the
gummed (glossed) wefts. Its characteristic
w. 115.8 (45 Vs) crispness, soft luster, and flat surface are teristics of the decorative style now called
Momoyama period, loth century particularly suited to shibori dyeing, a re- tsujigdhana, which flourished from the lat-
Kyoto National Museum serve, or resist, technique in which parts ter half of the Muromachi through the
Important Cultural Property of the fabric are protected against the dye Momoyama period.
when the piece is dipped in the dye bath. Among the upper classes of earlier pe-
This dobuku is said to have been given by Either the background or the design may riods, clothing with dyed designs had been
Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598) to Nanbu be so protected. The area to be reserved is a poor second to that with woven designs.
Nobunao (1546-1599), a warrior who sent "squeezed" (shiboru) away from the rest of The popularity of tsujigahana among the
horses and falcons to Hideyoshi during the the fabric by pinching or shirring, then daimyo of the Age of the Country at War
Odawara campaign in 1590. The design is tightly wound with waterproof thread, fi- (Sengoku era) must have been simultane-
entirely appropriate for a gift between feu- ber, or (for larger areas) bamboo sheathing; ously a result of and a spur to advances in
dal warriors: paulownia blossoms, Hide- when the fabric has been dyed and dried, shibori techniques. KS
these protective elements are removed.

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