Shibori - textile
Shibori is the Japanese word for a variety of ways of embellishing textiles by shaping cloth and securing it before dyeing.
The word comes from the verb root shiboru, "to wring, squeeze, press." Although shibori is used to designate a particular group of resist-dyed textiles, the verb root of the word emphasizes the action performed on cloth, the process of manipulating fabric.
Rather than treating cloth as a two-dimensional surface, with shibori it is given a three-dimensional form by folding, crumpling, stitching, plaiting, or plucking and twisting. Cloth shaped by these methods is secured in a number of ways, such as binding and knotting.
It is the pliancy of a textile and its potential for creating a multitude of shape-resisted designs that the
Background
Tie-dyeing has evolved in many cultures around the world, and can be seen on fabrics made thousands of years ago in Latin America, Africa, India, China and around Asia. It entered Japan at least 1300 years ago from China, along with the Chinese style of dress, and was interpreted in a particularly Japanese fashion.
The basic technique of Arimatsu Shibori is to draw a design on a piece of fabric (usually silk or cotton), then to tie very tight knots with thread around points of the fabric.
The fabric is then dyed; since the dye does not penetrate the knots, when they are untied there is a pattern of dyed and undyed areas. This can be repeated many times to produce patterns of various colours.
Shibori was originally an art of the poor. In feudal Japan, many people could not afford to buy expensive fabrics like cotton or silk, so clothes were often made of cheap hemp fabrics. People could not afford to replace clothes regularly either, so they would repair and redye them, and the art of Shibori evolved as a means of making old clothes look new.
Under the Tokugawa peace, many different arts flourished, and many different techniques and local forms of Shibori emerged. Shibori developed along two separate paths: as the method of decorating the silk used for producing kimonos for the aristocracy of Japan (largely carried out in Kyoto), and as a folk art differing from region to region.
One of the most famous locations for Shibori in Japan is Arimatsu in Nagoya. When he united Japan, the first Shogun, Tokugawa Ieyasu of Okazaki, moved the capital of Japan to Edo (now Tokyo). Ieyasu required that all the Daimyo or feudal lords travelled to Edo every other year to swear allegiance to him, and established 53 stations on the road between Osaka and Edo for them to rest during the journey. To ensure their safety, he encouraged the foundation of villages around these stations, one of which was Arimatsu, the forty-second station on the Tokaido, which was settled in 1608 by eight families.
While building a castle in Nagoya for his son, Ieyasu used workers from all over Japan. One group from Oita brought with them the techniques of Shibori, and the local families developed the technique to produce the particular beauty of Arimatsu Shibori. Travellers along the Tokaido road would buy cloths and towels made by the people of Arimatsu.
During the samurai period, the merchant class was relatively powerless, and it seems that they spent large amounts of money on various recreational activities, including buying elaborate kimonos which served to boost the industry.
With the mechanisation of the Meiji Restoration, railways removed a lot of the traffic from the
Tokaido and seriously threatened the industry in Arimatsu. In response, many mechanisation processes were developed to improve the efficiency of the production of Shibori, but it was still a labour intensive process.
However, with the popularity of yukata until the Second World War, the industry enjoyed relative prosperity.
The depression following the Second World War reduced the demand for expensive silk Shibori, but the economic boom of the 1960s saw a return to popularity for the kimono and an increased demand for the skills of the artisans.
Kyoto had always been the home of the more expensive silk dyeing for kimonos, but the artisans of Arimatsu expanded their range and experimented with the material, enjoying considerable success.
However, with the advent of artificial fabrics and dyes and fully mechanised production of fabrics, Arimatsu could no longer compete on the large scale it had before, and Shibori returned to a handmade high-quality high-price artefact.
