Tsujigahana tutorial

[gurdymonkey]

Tsujigahana, to the uninitiated, is a tie-dye technique that became popular in Japan in the 15th and 16th centuries. Given that I don't speak Japanese, I think the garment shown in the beginning of the video  belonged to Tokugawa Ieyasu, making it late 16th-early 17th century. The plugs inserted inside the reserved areas help keep the dye out of them. In period, the reserved areas would have been capped with bits of bamboo instead of Scotch tape. 

Scroll down here to see a 16th century fragment from a tsujigahana garment which combines large reserved areas as shown in the video, kanoko (fawn spot) shibori, and even detail painting with black ink.

Comments

[sarcasm-hime.livejournal.com]

Damn, that is REALLY cool. One of these days I'm going to have to try my hand at shibori.

[masahide.livejournal.com]

Very interesting, and it doesn't seem to hard of a technique if you begin with simple shapes & forms. I wonder if I can do my banner that way.... It has fairly regular areas, and not much detail... hum....

[gurdymonkey.livejournal.com]

I'll post results of anything I do. I was warned by a friend who has done shibori that it's a good idea to mist the thread and fabric just before you pull it tight. It softens the fibers and you can get a much tighter result that way.

[elmunadi.livejournal.com]

it's Tokugawa-sama's - 徳川家康

Type "Tokugawa Ieyasu" into google trasnlate from English to Japanese to get the kanji.

Thank you for confirming that.

[gurdymonkey.livejournal.com]

I'm not too surprised, the style and condition of the garment at the beginning of the clip is consistent with the time period.

I am so pleased that I have watched enough subtitled movies that I can at least identify nouns and names in spoken Japanese at this point. (What I need are verbs....)