NIPPON HANDWEAVES IN KUSAKIZOME DYES by Akira Yamazaki

I received this book as a gift in 1974. It is my treasured possession. Only 200 copies were printed in 1959, mine is No.194.

Asiatic dayflower (tsuukusa)

Saffron (benibana); madder (akane); gardenia (kuchinashi)

Fermented indigo (ai) balls

Sawtooth oak (kunugi)

Red (sappan wood); olive, mountain peach (shibuki); 
black is betel nut palm (binro) and indigo (ai)

Brown dye is gardenia (kuchinashi); 
red is sappan wood (suoh)

Gray is cranes bill geranium (gennoshoko); 
red is sappan wood (suoh)

Maroon is sappan wood (suoh); 
black dyed with indigo (ai) and 
wild sumac (yama-urushi)

Ramie dyed with indigo (ai); tumeric (ukon), 
eulalia grass miscanthus tinctorus (kariyasu) for yellow; 
alder, mountain peach bark and plum 
(han, shibuki and ume) for brown

Plum (ume)

Auburn color, Rosa rugosa (hamanashi); 
black is alder (han) with mountain peach (yamamono)

Gall (fushi or gobaishi); yellow (kuchinashi); 
light purple machilus thunbergi (tamakusu)

Blue (ai); green (ai) and yellow,  
eulalia grass miscanthus tinctorus (kariyasu)

Fermented indigo balls (aidama)

Yellow, gardenia (kuchinashi); red, sappan wood (suoh); 
black, (shibuki, myrica rubia. mountain peach and 
yamamomo, shibuki)

Pomegranate

To be continued....

TENUGUI Again

A Tenugui (手拭い) is a thin Japanese hand towel made of cotton.  It is typically about 35 by 90 centimeters (1′ x 3′ )plain woven and is almost always printed with some pattern. Today towels made from terry cloth have replaced many of its use in the household.  Tenugui has had a meandering history that includes ritual, practical and decorative uses. then more practically as a wrapping, business card, hand towel, bandage, or sweatband often worn around the head, most famously by samurai fighters. Many textile designers have designed tenugui because it offers an opportunity to use many textile techniques: shibori, screen printing, painting, block printing and batik.

BOOK ON TENUGUI

    

                                                   

                                            

These towels are from the collection of Elaine Blythe