Page 357 - Edo: Art in Japan, 1615–1868

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Katabira with rustic pauilions and
seasonal plants

Second half of eighteenth century
Paste-resist and indigo dyeing, silk
and metallic thread embroidery, and
pigment on plain-weave ramie
3
167 x 127.4 (6s /4X 50 Vs)
National Museum of Japanese History,
Chiba, Nomura Collection

• This katabira made of fine ramie
356
cloth is decorated primarily by an
exacting paste-resist and indigo dye-
ing technique called chayazome (see
also cat. 193). A starch-paste resist
was applied to both sides of the fab-
ric, leaving only lines and small areas
of design to receive the blue color
when the cloth was submerged in an
indigo dye vat. The different shades
of blue, a characteristic feature of
chayazome katabira, were obtained by
exposing certain areas of the fabric
to a greater number of immersions in
the dye. Lighter blue areas were cov-
ered with resist after preliminary col-
oring and before the cloth was dipped
in the dye again. After the desired
tones of darkest blue were attained,
the cloth was hung to dry, then rinsed
in water to remove the paste. It has
been suggested that this technique
was the invention of a seventeenth-
century Kyoto textile merchant
named Chaya Shirójiró, but there is
no substantial evidence to corrobo-
rate this claim.

Chayazome katabira were worn pri-
marily, if not exclusively, by women the four seasons are rendered in blue
of the highest levels of the samurai and white with occasional touches
class. These expensive formal sum- of colorful silk or gold thread em-
mer garments were typically deco- broidery. Included are late winter
rated with stylized landscapes. The plum blossoms; early spring cherry
landscape on this example includes blossoms; summer irises, peonies,
clusters of thatch-roof pavilions with and narcissus; and autumn chrysan-
brushwood fences, gates, bridges, themums, bellflowers, bush clover,
rocks, drying fishnets, and water. A and maple leaves. Yellow gold pig-
profusion of plants and flowers of ment highlights some of the pine,
iris, and rock motifs. Fine blue lines
and dots were probably drawn with
an indigo pigment crayon. With its
apparent disregard for perspective
and many elements grossly out of
proportion, this composition of a fan-
tasy landscape is nevertheless very
charming. SST