We spent the day with our guide Kit who has been living in Tokyo for over forty years. She met her Japanese husband in London where he was a student and she was a resident advisor for Brown University study abroad. Kit has. PhD in English literature and is fluent in Japanese of course. It was an amazing adventure. Our day started at a katazome workshop and ended with shaved ice —. nothing I’ve ever tasted before! An amazing treat to end our day together. I was so full I couldn’t eat dinner.
Stencil dyeing in Japan is called katazome (型染め). In this technique, a stencil (usually made from paper) is used to apply a resist paste, typically made from rice flour, onto fabric. The resist blocks dye from penetrating certain areas, creating intricate patterns when the fabric is dyed. After dyeing, the resist is washed away to reveal the design. Katazome is commonly used for kimono fabrics and other traditional textiles.
The workshop master makes intricately dyed cloth that is sewn into kimono that can cost $70,000 USD. These are handed down generation to generation. We had a hands-on experience dyeing a tote bag. I chose white. Annie chose gold.
We will likely have a similar experience on our October Japan tour in 2025. Send me an email if you want to get on the interested list.
The cloth is “cooked” in a sawdust steam bath to set the design permanently. We got there just in time to see the dye master bring it out of the steamer. It will then be rinsed in an indoor “stream” of water to reveal the pattern.
Japan is an aesthetic experience. There is detail and be attention to everything here, from food to clothing to handcrafts. It is a place of extraordinary beauty. And they practice the art of wabi-sabi — there is beauty in simplicity and imperfection.
I’m eating a fig and red wine shaved ice treat.
