Beautiful, velvety images of black as seen at Sometsuka Yoshioka, Kyoto’s botanical dye works owned by the publisher and master dyer, Sachio Yoshioka.

Bamboo charcoal, above.  A mosquito coil, below.

Dyestuffs, below.

Please have a look at the posts below this one for an introduction to Sometsukasa Yoshioka, the Kyoto based dyeworks which has been in operation for five generations, since the late Edo Period.  And keep checking back to see more postings as there will be 11 in all.

Some postings, like this one, will be impressionistic and just give a hint of color “flavor” while others will be a bit more explanatory on the process and materials shown in photos.

A few glimpses of green will be shown in the next post….