Kosode Fabric, Color, and Decoration

Fabric types

• Hemp (taima)
• Ramie (chōma or karamushi)
• Cotton (momen) becoming common in the late 1400s, imported from Korea, spun thickly and valued for warmth.
• Wool (uuru) very rare, seen only in jinbaori/dōbuku
• Silk
• Plain weave (hiraginu, habutae)
• Plain weave with unglossed warp (nerinuki)
• Pongee (tsumugi)
• Twill (aya)
• Figured twill (mon aya, saya)
• Satin (shusu)
• Figured satin (rinzu)
• Brocade (atsuita, kara-ori, nishiki-ori)
• Gauze (ro, ra, sha)

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Asa is a general term for any bast fiber fabric (hemp, linen, ramie, wisteria, banana), and may be translated as ‘linen’ in some sources. However, flax was not grown in Japan before 1600.

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Color

• Red: Commoners used madder (brick red), while the wealthy used madder, brazilwood (raspberry red) and safflower (fire engine red). Safflower was very popular with upper class Momoyama women.
• Orange was made using any red plus any yellow. Some extant garments that now appear orange were originally red.
• Yellows included gardenia (daffodil yellow), Amur cork tree (fluorescent yellow, more often used to make green than yellow) and the popular miscanthus (golden yellow).
• Greens were made using any yellow plus indigo. Men were more likely to wear dark green, while women more often wore lime green.
• Blue was dyed using indigo and was especially popular among commoners and samurai due to its properties of strengthening the fabric and repelling insects.

Color

• Purple could be made either from murasaki or from a red plus indigo or iron (false murasaki). Lavender and red-purple were common among the middle and upper classes. Dark shades of true murasaki were restricted during some time periods.
• Browns were made from tannin-containing plants such as oak and chestnut. Brown could be turned into gray or black through the addition of iron. These subtle colors became more popular with the rise of the wabi-sabi aesthetic in the Muromachi period.
• White was commonly used painted or stenciled with a design. Solid white hakama and kosode were seen as part of otherwise colorful ensembles, but head-to-toe solid white was generally reserved for religious use.
• Solid black was worn by religious, charcoal sellers, and farmers. Patterned blacks were worn by samurai, and after ~1595 by noblewomen (Keicho period).

Tsutsugaki

Tsutsugaki is a rice paste resist applied by hand drawing, using a cone made from persimmon tannin-treated paper. It is the precursor to Edo period yuzen, and is not as common as the following techniques. The garment at right is a suou, not a kosode.

Katazome

Katazome is rice paste resist applied using a stencil made of kakishibu (persimmon tannin)-treated paper, sometimes with silk gauze attached to stabilize the stencil. Dyes can also be applied through a stencil (surizome).

Kasuri

Kasuri, known elsewhere as ikat, involves resist-dyeing the thread before weaving, creating a soft border between colors. Medieval kasuri types (noshime, karaori) are significantly different from the most common modern kasuri (e-gasuri).

Shibori

There are so many types of shibori that I have given it its own handout (see History of Shibori). Boshi, kanoko, nuishime, and kumo were some of the most common types from 1400-1600.

Kaki-e

Ink painting was used to decorate fabric, often on a base of resist-dyeing. Pre-treat your fabric with soy milk, grind an ink stick into more soy milk, and allow to cure for a month before washing.

Nuihaku

Embroidery could be used as an accent or to fully cover the garment, and was often combined with gold leaf

Surihaku

Gold (right) or more rarely silver leaf (left) is applied by stenciling on an adhesive such as gelatin glue, rice paste, or lacquer, then adding the leaf. Surihaku combined with embroidery is called nuihaku (center).

Tsujigahana

Shibori combined with ink painting, embroidery and/or gold leaf is known as tsujigahana, and was wildly popular from ~1400-1600.

References

1. Cardon, Dominique. Natural Dyes: Sources, Tradition, Technology and Science. London: Archetype, 2007.
2. Ito, Toshiko. Tsujigahana : The Flower of Japanese Textile Art. Kodansha America, Incorporated, 1985.
3. Kaneko, Kenji. Katazome, Komon, Chuugata. Kyoto: Fujioka Mamoru, 1994.
4. Kyoto Dyeing and Weaving Association. https://senshokubunka-kyoto.jp/gijyutu/ Accessed 2/13/24.
5. Nakano, Eiko and Barbara Stephan. Japanese stencil dyeing: paste-resist techniques. New York: Weatherhill 1982.
6. Stinchecum, AM. Kosode: 16th to 19th Century Textiles From the Nomura Collection. Japan Society and Kodansha International, 1984.