is a Japanese technique of

resist dyeing Resist dyeing (resist-dyeing) is a traditional method of dyeing textiles with patterns. Methods are used to "resist" or prevent the dye from reaching all the cloth, thereby creating a pattern and ground. The most common forms use wax, some type ...

that involves drawing rice-paste designs on cloth,

dye A dye is a colored substance that chemically bonds to the substrate to which it is being applied. This distinguishes dyes from pigments which do not chemically bind to the material they color. Dye is generally applied in an aqueous solution an ...

ing the cloth, and then washing off the paste.Reiko Mochinaga Brandon. Country Textiles of Japan: The Art of Tsutsugaki. Weatherhill; 1986. , The rice paste is typically made from sweet rice, which has a high

starch Starch or amylum is a polymeric carbohydrate consisting of numerous glucose units joined by glycosidic bonds. This polysaccharide is produced by most green plants for energy storage. Worldwide, it is the most common carbohydrate in human diets ...

content and is therefore rather sticky. The paste is applied through a tube () similar to a

piping bag A pastry bag (or piping bag in the Commonwealth) is an often cone- or triangular-shaped bag made from cloth, paper, plastic, or the intestinal lining of a lamb, that is squeezed by hand to ''pipe'' semi-solid foods by pressing them through a ...

. A related process is to apply the paste through a stencil, a technique known as . The cloth dyed typically

cotton Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus ''Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor perce ...

, and the dye is typically

indigo Indigo is a deep color close to the color wheel blue (a primary color in the RGB color space), as well as to some variants of ultramarine, based on the ancient dye of the same name. The word "indigo" comes from the Latin word ''indicum'', m ...

, so the design is usually white on blue. Banners for shops or other purposes are sometimes made in this manner. The designs are often creatures from

Japanese mythology Japanese mythology is a collection of traditional stories, folktales, and beliefs that emerged in the islands of the Japanese archipelago. Shinto and Buddhist traditions are the cornerstones of Japanese mythology. The history of thousands of year ...

such as the crane or the

tortoise Tortoises () are reptiles of the family Testudinidae of the order Testudines (Latin: ''tortoise''). Like other turtles, tortoises have a turtle shell, shell to protect from predation and other threats. The shell in tortoises is generally hard, ...

, or a family crest, or a name (written in

kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese ...

). Flowers and trees are common motifs as well.

References

Bibliography

* ''Tsutsugaki Textiles of Japan: Traditional Freehand Paste Resist Indigo Dyeing Technique of Auspicious Motifs''. Kyoto: Shikosha, 1987. Text by Sachio Yoshioka; editor, Noriko Hirai; collector, Gensho Sasakura. * Reiko Mochinaga Brandon. ''Country Textiles of Japan: The Art of Tsutsugaki''. Honolulu Academy of the Arts, 1986. {{fabric Japanese dyeing techniques Japanese art terminology Japanese words and phrases