Japanese Textiles

 

Textiles have long been an important part of Japanese culture. Japanese weavers and dyers created textiles with distinctive design and exceptional aesthetic merit by using silk, hemp, ramie, cotton, and other fibers, as well as a variety of weaves and decorative treatments. These textiles were used for a variety of purposes, including clothing for both commoners and elites, banners, hangings, and other materials for temples, theatrical costumes, and cushion covers, curtains, and other domestic uses. Japanese textiles, like many other Japanese arts, have historically evolved through an interaction of external influences and indigenous techniques and design choices, as well as a tendency to refine both technology and aesthetics to a high degree.

Historical Overview

Plant fiber cloth was woven by Japan's original inhabitants (people of the Jômon Culture). Beginning around 300 B.C.E., invaders from the northeast Asian mainland established the Yayoi Culture in Japan, introducing more sophisticated materials (including ramie and silk) and techniques. However, a distinct Japanese textile culture can be traced back to the Yamato Period (c. 300-710 C.E. ), when aristocratic clans and the emerging monarchy increased demand for fine fabrics, particularly silk. The introduction of Buddhism in the mid-sixth century increased demand for fine ecclesiastical textiles. Some of these textiles were imported from Asia, but an increasing amount were manufactured in Japan. Weavers, dyers, and other textile workers from Korea and China were encouraged to settle in Japan under court patronage; textile production was both patronized and regulated by the state, with imperial workshops producing the best textiles. Silk fabrics in plain and twill weaves were frequently dyed in solid colors or patterns created by stamped wax-resist dyeing. Brocades were made for both aristocratic and religious purposes. Applique, embroidery, and braiding were among the other techniques used.

The Nara Period (710-785) saw an explosion in the number, wealth, and power of Buddhist temples, which fueled the development of textile arts and the massive importation of mainland textiles. The following Heian Period (795-1185) saw a greater emphasis on domestic production, both in imperial and private workshops. During this time, brocade and embroidery remained popular, as did the increased use of pattern-woven cloth as a ground for patterned dyeing, whether done with wax- or paste-resist methods or various shaped-resist dyeing techniques. Because one of the main aesthetic principles of dress in this era was the harmonious use of colors in multiple layers of clothing, great efforts were made to expand and perfect dyeing methods.

Military rule was established under the auspices of the samurai (warrior) class during the Kamakura (1185-1233) and Muromachi (1338-1477) periods. During this time, international trade increased again, bringing a plethora of new materials, techniques, and design motifs to Japan. Cotton was introduced around this time, largely replacing hemp fiber in commoner textiles. During the Muromachi Period, the development of the Nôh theater under the patronage of the military aristocracy, with its attendant demand for luxurious and brilliantly beautiful costumes, stimulated textile production and innovation. With the introduction of multi-harness looms and improved drawlooms, the production of complex silk fabrics such as damask and satin increased, which were frequently used as background fabrics for patterned dyeing (damask) and embroidery.

After more than a century of civil war (1477-1601) in Japan, the establishment of the Tokugawa Shogunate (1601-1868) heralded a new era of peace and prosperity. The kosode had become established as the basic garment of Japanese dress by the sixteenth century; the rapid growth of cities, and of well-to-do urban populations, made this and subsequent forms of the kimono a focus for textile arts. Sumptuary laws aimed at preventing commoners from wearing brocades and other complex textiles simply encouraged weavers and dyers to create surface-decorated fabrics of exceptional beauty and variety while adhering to the letter of the law. As demand grew for elaborate and luxurious sashes (obi) with which women fastened their kimonos, the growth of urban pleasure quarters inhabited by courtesans who could sometimes command gifts of great value stimulated the brocade-weaving and tapestry-weaving industries. Meanwhile, peasants in the countryside were developing or preserving their own techniques for weaving and dyeing cotton fabrics, often in distinctive regional styles.

The abolition of military rule and the restoration of imperial rule in Japan in 1868 ushered in a period of rapid modernization. There was a significant vogue for Western clothing for both men and women in the late nineteenth century; however, in the early twentieth century, many women returned to wearing kimonos most of the time. Following WWII, kimono wearing declined again, becoming almost entirely limited to festival and special-occasion dress by the 1960s, or occupational dress for women in the hospitality industries. By the late nineteenth century, when Japan turned to industrial textile production as an early step toward economic development and modernization, the traditional textile arts had already entered a long period of decline. Cheap machine-made fabrics have had a significant impact on peasant production of handwoven and hand dyed cotton cloth. Many techniques have been saved from extinction thanks to conscious efforts to preserve or revive old textile traditions, but hand production of textiles in Japan now belongs almost entirely to the world of art and craft.

Woven Textiles

The most common weave types found in Japanese textiles, regardless of fiber, are plain (tabby) twill weave, satin weave, damask and other patterned weaves, and brocade.

Plain weave or damask weave silk fabrics are typically used in kimonos where the main decorative elements are batch-dyed or resist-dyed rather than woven or embroidered. Colored damasks (donsu) were used without further dyeing or embellishment, employing dyed silk warp threads and weft threads in contrasting colors; colored damasks were particularly favored for decorative purposes, such as mounting fabric for scroll paintings and in cloths used in the tea ceremony. Floating-weft or floating-warp satin (shusu) is frequently used for silk garment fabrics with embroidery as the primary decorative element. Since the Nara period, patterned twill (aya) and twisted-warp gauze (ra), often in lightweight, semi-transparent fabrics, have been used for garments, and were later favored for the wide, loose trousers (hakama) and stiff jackets (kamishimo) worn by samurai on formal occasions. Twill is also frequently used as the ground weave for nishiki, a multicolored, brocade-like, drawloom-woven fabric.

Various types of brocades and tapestry weaves were used in ancient times for Buddhist ecclesiastical garments and temple decorations. As garment fabrics, they are particularly popular in obi sashes, which are frequently tied in very elaborate and decorative ways that highlight the luxurious textiles from which they are made. Both obi and kimono are frequently made of kara-ori ("Chinese weave," i.e. weft-float brocade), a stiff, heavy fabric in which supplementary weft threads on bobbins are float-woven by hand over a plain or twill background fabric. Tsuzure (fingernail tapestry) is a bobbin-woven tapestry capable of producing extremely complex patterns and is commonly used for obi.

Plain weave is by far the most common weave used in cotton fabrics. Cotton textiles in stripes and plaids of indigo and other vegetable-dye colors were extremely popular for informal kimono during the Tokugawa period; such fabrics were also used for domestic décor such as covers for sleeping mats and sitting cushions. Plain-woven textiles of plain white cotton served as the foundation for the dyeing techniques described below.

Dyeing

Much of the unique beauty of Japanese textiles stems from the use of highly developed dyeing techniques such as paste-resist, shaped-resist, and ikat, as well as composite techniques that combine two or more of these methods.

Wax-resist dyeing (batik) was known in ancient Japan, but by the end of the Heian Period, it had been replaced by paste-resist methods, which used a thick paste of rice flour instead of wax. Paste-resist techniques include stencil and freehand dyeing.

Stencil dyeing (katazome) uses mulberry bark paper stencils that have been laminated in several layers with persimmon juice and toughened and waterproofed by smoking. Special knives are used to cut patterns into these stencils. When the cloth is immersed in a dyebath, the paste is forced through the openwork of the stencil onto the cloth, where it then resists taking the dye. After dyeing, the paste is washed from the cloth. Simple stencil dyeing is most common in folk-art indigo-dyed cotton textiles, which are used for both domestic furnishings and clothing. The most common modern application of paste-resist dyed indigo-and-white cotton cloth is for yukata, cotton kimonos used as sleepwear and informal streetwear, particularly in hot spring resorts. To achieve a multi-colored effect, stencil dyeing can be done in two or more stages.

Freehand paste-resist dyeing (tsutsugaki) applies paste to the fabric with a waterproof paper cone; this technique is frequently used to create large, bold patterns such as those found on shop curtains (noren) and package-carrying cloths (furoshiki).

In Japanese, shaped-resist dyeing techniques are known as shibori; the word is commonly translated as "tie-dyed," but this does not convey the wide range of techniques involved in shibori dyeing. Shibori resists are made by sewing sections of cloth together in tight gathers; twisting cloth, often in complex ways; folding cloth and then compressing it between boards or in wooden or paper tubes; and other similar techniques. The goal in every case is to compress portions of cloth so that they are unaffected by dye when the entire cloth is placed in a dyebath. Although skilled practitioners can achieve a high level of control over the process, shibori dyeing always includes an element of chance or uncertainty, which adds to its aesthetic appeal. Undyed areas of shibori textiles can be embellished in a variety of ways, including hand-application of dyes with brushes, embroidery, or applying gold or silver foil to the fabric with paste.

Ikat, also known as kasuri in Japanese, is a dyeing technique in which warp and weft yarns are bound in thread in pre-arranged patterns. The yarns are then woven as weft or warped in the proper sequence, with the pattern emerging as the weaving progresses. Kasuri textiles are made from silk in a variety of colors; ramie; cotton, typically indigo-dyed; and banana fiber in Okinawa, often with multiple colors produced by successive wrappings and dyeings of the yarn.

Yuzen, which was invented around 1700, is probably the most well-known Japanese dyeing technique. It is created by combining freehand or stenciled paste-resist work with hand-applied dyes. A pattern is applied with a fine brush using a non-permanent blue vegetable dye to a stretched cloth (either silk or cotton), and then covered freehand with paste; or the paste is applied directly with a stencil. The cloth is then brushed with a thin layer of soybean extract. The cloth is then dampened with water, and dye is applied by hand with brushes, resulting in the color-shaded effect characteristic of yuzen. Yuzen is capable of achieving color effects of incredible subtlety and complexity, and it is used to make the finest and most valuable kimono fabrics.

Bingata stencil dyeing, an Okinawan art form, can be thought of as a paste-resist version of batik. It employs multiple steps of stencil-applied paste and dyeing (either by vat dyeing or by hand dyeing), with dyed areas covered with paste resist in subsequent stages of work. Bingata is commonly made in bright colors with pictorial motifs of birds, flowers, and landscapes.

Embroidery

Embroidery, like brocade and tapestry weaving, arrived in Japan in ancient times in connection with Buddhism, and was frequently used to create pictorial hangings for temples. French knots, chain stitch, satin stitch, and couched satin stitch are among the stitches used in Japanese embroidery. Embroidery is used in garments, particularly kimonos, to embellish vat-dyed plain weave silk textiles, silk satin, and textiles decorated with various dye techniques such as shibori and katazome.

Decorative Stitching

Japanese farm women invented a method for reusing worn cotton textiles by stitching them together in layers to make jackets, aprons, and other protective garments. Sashiko, a technique similar to quilting, evolved from a practical way of using cloth to a unique craft of decorative stitching. Sashiko is almost always done on indigo-dyed cotton cloth with white cotton thread. Stitches may run parallel to the warp, parallel to the weft, or both; patterns are typically geometric and often intricately lacy.

Ainu Textiles

The Ainu are the indigenous people of Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost main island; their ancestors were among the first inhabitants of Japan before the Yayoi arrived. The culture of the Ainu is more similar to that of Sakhalin Island and other parts of northeastern Siberia than to that of Japan. The Ainu are known for preserving old techniques for making jackets and other items of clothing that are embellished with appliqué and embroidery in bold, curvilinear designs, often in light colors on a dark background.

Contemporary Japanese Textiles

Textiles' status in modern Japan can be divided into four categories. In Japan, commercial textiles are a declining industry. Textile production, particularly of man-made fiber textiles such as rayon and polyester, was critical to Japan's postwar economic recovery, but has since declined as production has moved to countries with lower labor costs. Some silk is produced in Japan by the heavily subsidized agricultural sector of the country.

Traditional textiles are still flourishing. The Japanese government promotes the preservation of traditional arts and crafts by providing financial assistance to "Holders of Important Intangible Cultural Properties," also known colloquially as "Living National Treasures." These master practitioners of their crafts mentor thousands of other full-time craft workers. At any given time, approximately one-third of the approximately 100 Living National Treasures are in the field of textile arts. Brocade weaver Kitagawa Hyôji, late stencil paste-resist dyer Serizawa Keisuke, and yuzen dyer Yamada Mitsugi are notable examples.

Fashion textiles have received significant support from some of Japan's most well-known fashion designers, most notably Issey Miyake, whose innovative use of materials such as tube-knitted jersey has boosted Japan's fine textile industry.

Art textiles, or fiber arts in general, are a thriving field in Japan's contemporary art scene, having gained international acclaim through exhibitions such as "Structure and Surface" (New York, 1999) and "Through the Surface" (Tokyo, 2000). (London, 2004). Individual fiber artists with international reputations include Arai Junichi, known for his innovative use of techno-textiles; Sudo Reiko, known for her sculptural woven fabrics; and Tomita Jun, who produces contemporary textile art using traditional dyeing techniques.