My attempt at Maiwai Dyeing

Japan has so many traditional crafts and skills and I love to meet the artisans who carry on the traditions through the generations.

A few months ago, I was lucky enough to take part in a workshop on Maiwai Dyeing.  During the Edo period (1603 – 1868), the art of Maiwai developed among the fishermen who lived along the coast of the Boso Peninsula in Chiba Prefecture. Originally maiwai meant just celebrating a good catch, but over time it came to refer to the dyed cloth that ship owners would distribute to fishermen to celebrate a good catch.  The Fishermen’s wives would then make up kimonos from the cloth.  The practice continued right up to  the 1950s.

The process of Maiwai Dyeing:

The designs are carved onto stencils and then a paste of glutinous rice and rice bran applied over the stencil onto the cloth.  Once this has dried and hardened pigments dissolved in soybean juice are applied to build up the design.  The cloth is then soaked for a day in water to dissolve the paste.  During the workshop we chose a design which had already been pasted on to the cloth and we had to choose and the apply the colour to the cloth.  It still took a long time for me to complete but I would love to have a go at the whole process!