Overview of Woven and Dyed Textiles
A spectacular range of woven and dyed textiles developed in Japan. Textile history began with the weaving of twisted cords made from wisteria and mulberry fibers and hemp and ramie grass. Around AD 200 the Chinese court sent a gift of silk cloths and silkworms to Japan. Queen Himiko (fl. ca. 3rd century) returned the tribute with a gift of asa (hemp; ramie) and rough silk. From about this time, textiles became a major item of tribute and the Yamato court (ca. 4th century-ca. mid-7th century) supervised textile production in the nation, avidly welcoming weavers from China and Korea with new techniques such as brocades (nishiki), figured twills (aya), delicate silk gauzes (ro and sha). In the Nara period (710-794) various stamp-applied, wax-resist dyed fabrics and embroidery techniques were learned from the Continent.
After the capital moved to Heiankyo (Kyoto) in 794, the court developed its own aesthetic distinct from Chinese, in which plain silks were favored over woven and dyed designs. The ultimate expression of the Heian aesthetic was the women's court costume called junihitoe, which consisted of many layers of colored silk robes subtly graded to reflect minute changes in season and the occasion.
The next major development in textiles came in the 16th century, when Japan saw imports of new patterned silks, damasks (donsu), figured satins, woven silk stripes (kanto), rich, heavy brocades woven of gold and silver thread (kinran and ginran), new patterned silk gauzes (ro and sha) and light silk crepe (chirimen) from China and cotton calico (sarasa) from India. By the end of the 16th century Japanese weavers had begun to imitate their production. Nishijin in Kyoto became a center of production of high quality fabrics.
Meanwhile, the kosode, the forerunner of the kimono, had became the common garb. Over the 16th and 17th centuries the tsujigahana decorative textile method, in which the entire garment became the canvas for exquisite designs combining stitch-resist dyeing (shibori) and inkbrush-painting became popular.
Throughout the Edo period (1600-1868) the Tokugawa Shogunate issued strict sumptuary laws regarding the textiles for use by urban merchants. Forbidden to wear heavy brocades and damasks, 17th-century merchants and their wives turned to the dyers, who were soon producing textiles to rival the finest woven products in style, variety, skill, and sheer expense. Silk kosode made of tiny-pointed tie-dye (kanoko) and yuzen, a composite painting technique employing rice-paste resist, characterized the mid-Edo period. Recently domesticated cotton, as well as asa stripes, checks, stencil and paste resist (katazome) and hazy-patterned ikat (kasuri) textiles were typical of the late 18th and 19th centuries.
Meanwhile farmers and fishermen made indigo-and-white versions of the ikat, stripes, and katazome textiles of the city merchants. To add strength to work clothes, they stitched together layers of cloth using bold and intricate designs (sashiko). They also made an art of patching and rag-weaving. Ainu in northern Japan had their own distinctive clothes (atsushi) employing geometric applique and stitching, while the people of the Ryukyu islands (Okinawa) developed stencil-dyed fabrics employing lyrical patterns inspired by nature which they executed in sky blues and vivid yellows (bingata).
