Traditional Dyeing and Weaving: Chuusen
As a dyer, I have my own preferred techniques, but I have always been fascinated
by how the creative human mind has been able to come up with such a wide
variety of methods to pattern cloth. Chuusen is one of the more modern techniques.
Until very recently, chuusen was the most common method employed to dye lower- and medium-quality-range yukata for traditional summer wear. Yukata are commonly seen worn by both men and women at summer festivals, such as Tanabata, or any casual summer outing. (They are never worn for formal wear at any time
of the year.)
Using a large wooden spatula called a debabera, the paste is applied through the stencil to the cotton fabric below. This will
be repeated many times as the fabric is folded back and forth over the previous
layer of pasted cloth.
What distinguishes chuusen from other traditional techniques is its use of a vacuum table. I haven’t been able to find any documentation to corroborate stories of the origins of
chuusen, but the tale commonly told in Japan is that the process originated in
Scandinavia. Once developed, a profitable use could not be found and so it was
abandoned, whereupon it was appropriated by traditional dyers in Japan to
greatly speed up the process involved in producing inexpensive fabrics for mass
consumption.
The stencil is placed in position and the paste applied.
As the layers build, columns of paste are formed through all the levels. Placing
the stencil in precisely the same location each time is very exacting work and crucial to achieving high image definition.
The white cotton is placed over the previous layer of wet paste.
Using a pitcher that looks like a watering can, the dye is poured over the
surface of the fabric. Notice how a moat has been placed around the borders of
the stacked cloth to prevent the dye from spilling over the edges.
Young couple out for a stroll in matching yukata.
Let’s take a look at the process. The following images have been taken from an
on-line video clip. Click on the first image below to view the movie, and then
read on for a step-by-step description of what you have just observed:.
The dye is poured using a watering-can-like pitcher.
A vacuum pump is beneath the table. When switched on it will quickly suck the
dye through the cloth and away from the paste. This is the truly innovative
step in the process. By pulling the excess dye away from the fabric as soon as
possible, it allows the paste to stay wet throughout the entire procedure
without degrading. If the dye lingered, it would dissolve away the paste and
distort the paste-printed image.
I hope the diagram to the right helps you to visualize how the paste stacks up
into pillar-like columns. Although only one color is shown being used in the
movie, any number of colors may be employed. A distinctive blending of colors
occurs where the boundaries overlap.
On-line chuusen process video provided by NugooKamakura.
As with most traditional textiles in Japan, the standard width of the fabric
used for chuusen is 31cm to 36 cm (around 12″ – 14″).
The factory shown in the above clip is dyeing tenugui, an all purpose piece of cloth used as everything from a rag to wipe table
tops, to sweat bands tied about a worker’s brow, to highly collected pieces of textile art.
How the dye flows through the layers with the help of the vacuum table.
Once the top protective cloth has been removed, the design is clearly visible.
It seems to be a miner or hiker of some sort, although it could also be a
battery-operated nose-hair clipper with legs. Add a fan and a cane and you’ve got quite a saucy dance routine… But in the right market, I’m sure it will be a hot seller!
The factory stocks a huge volume of sarashi cotton.
A long fiber, high quality cotton called sarashi is used for most tenugui and a little heavier fabric is used for yukata.
This artist is using hand-made mulberry paper, called shibugami, to create a stencil. (Most contemporary artists will use a synthetic version
of this stencil paper.) Once the image is cut, it will be lacquered with
netting and stapled to a frame.
The top cloth has been removed to expose the image.
A stencil is prepared using smoked mulberry paper. In this case the artist is
using a photocopy overlay and cutting through the copy and the stencil paper (shibugami) at the same time.
The movie clip doesn’t show this, but normally at this stage the wet dyed/pasted cloth would be moved
to a steam room so that the dyes may be set. From there it is taken to be
washed, removing all the paste and the excess dye. Isn’t this a cool apparatus they have to swish the fabric clean?
A huge mixing bowl of paste is prepared for the project. The bowl has a blade at
the bottom attached a motor to help the craftsman keep the paste churned and
elastic.
Paste is prepared to act as a resist.
Automated swishing device to remove the paste and excess dye.
