On today’s post I am showing a selection of shibori from my collection–shibori is the famous “shape resist dyed” cloth of Japan which is akin to tie-dyeing.  All of the images below are details from various shibori yukata, a yukata being an unlined, “casual” kimono, and the examples displayed range in age from (approximately) the end of the 19th century until about 1940 or so.

Most of the pieces are hand loomed cotton which has been dyed in indigo, with one exception being  a hemp garment dyed in benibana or safflower dye, the safflower yielding a bright magenta color in this case.

Some pieces shown have been sold, some are offered for sale on my website now, some will be offered in the future, and some I am keeping in my own collection.

Almost all the shibori shown here was created in Japan’s shibori capital, the area encompassing the towns of Arimatsu and Narumi, near Nagoya, where in the late 19th century endless variations on the shibori technique were invented and proliferated.

For more in-depth information on shibori, the resource I would suggest is “Shibori: The Inventive Art of Japanese Shaped Resist Dyeing” by Yoshiko Iwamoto Wada, Mary Kellogg Rice and Jane Barton, available here.

Above: yanagi or willow shibori.

I will offer this yukata (above) on my website on 20 May.

This shibori has a dyed grey field.  The shibori is of the typed referred to as tatsumaki arashi, or diagonal diamond net.

Tesuji or hand pleated shibori, above.  This is currently for sale on my website.

Above, shirokage or white shadow shibori showing the tatewaku motif.

The motif is interlocking circles or shippo tsunagi: the shibori is created by stitching a piece of paper into a fold in the cloth: this allows the proper resist to create a pattern as shown above.

Okkochizome or a kind of shibori where selected areas of cloth were dip dyed.  The motif is the kiri or pauwlonia flower which is associated with the legendary phoenix in Japanese Buddhist symbolism.

Above: pleating done in two directions yields this striking check pattern.

Benibana or safflower dyed hemp: the pattern shows folding fans, plum blossoms and chidori, or plovers.

Above: suji or pleated shibori.  A variation is offered for sale on my website, here.

Suji or pleated shibori vertical stripes with stencil applied color on the horizontal stripes (surikomi).

Shirokage shibori in the form of the hemp leaf or asa-no-ha, one of Japan’s traditional motives.

Today I am showing what I consider to be three stunningly beautiful Indian textiles, specifically an indigo dyed cotton Naga shawl (right) and two intensely stitched kanthas to its left.  Surrounding these three textiles which are hanging together on the wall are some Japanese country textiles from the late nineteenth century.  I’ll talk a bit about the Naga shawl first.

The beautifully colored, indigo dyed cotton shawl was woven in Nagaland a hill state in far north eastern India which was created in 1961, and home to the Nagas, who can be called a “tribal” people who belong to an Indo-Mongoloid family. Nagaland is in a remote part of India as it borders the distant states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur: Nagas also live in Burma, which borders these Indian states.

The Nagas are a group of 14 major tribes, each with their own dialect, customs, beliefs and creation myths–and as their land is physically quite remote from the country of India, the people of Nagaland are a racial group distinct from the inhabitants of India. One of the most famous cultural features of the Naga was their practice of head hunting, a tradition which has been put to an end by the government of India and by a gradual conversion of the Nagas to Christianity.

This  shawl is a soft, deep indigo color which has bears a rich patina from wear, and it is comprised of three woven strips–each about 14″ wide–which are hand stitched together.  Along the warp throughout the piece is a very subtle striping of alternating pale blue and bone colored “pin stripes.”   The two ends are finished by tied, twisted and knotted fringe.  Look carefully at the photos and notice the small flecks of color that are inserted at the seams–and also note the beautifully tight mendings.

For more on the Nagas, why don’t you visit the site of Pablo Bartholomew whose photos and stories on the Naga are compelling and beautiful.

I’ve shown some wonderful kanthas from West Bengal and Bangladesh on this blog before–if you go to the “tag cloud” to the right of this column and click on the word “kantha” you’ll see some previous posts on kantha, with some fascinating quotes on this folk tradition by the famed Indologist, Stella Kramrisch.   Also, if you notice the “…of interest” blogroll above the tag cloud, you’ll see a link to the kanthas in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum–these kantas were collected by Stella Kramrisch and she gave them to the museum.  They are a stunning collection, and all acquired in the early part of last century.  My belief is that the two kantas shown below date to the early 20th century or perhaps slightly before.

Spend some time studying the minute stitching and intensely complex patterns of these two exquisite kanthas.  These are among the favorites in my collection.