Japan BLUE / JAPAN BLUE

Indigo color called Japan Blue

Here is one picture. Shinagawa-juku of "Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido", a series of Ukiyo-e that everyone knows. Along with the sunrise sky, a daimyo procession walks along the road, and the calm seascape is drawn on the left half of the composition. The indigo gradation that dyes this sea is very impressive and brings a moist and rich emotion to the whole painting.

The author is Hiroshige Utagawa, who represents the ukiyo-e artist of the late Edo period. Ukiyo-e painted during this period crossed the sea and had a great influence on European painters such as Van Gogh and Monet. Among them, the indigo color frequently used in ukiyo-e seems to be very impressive, and it was called "Japan Blue" or "Hiroshige Blue" as a color that symbolizes Japan.

Along with cotton, indigo goes into life

Indigo is a natural dye made from plants. Its use is said to be the oldest in the world. Indigo dyeing, which uses indigo to dye threads and cloth, has been practiced in Japan for a long time.

In the "Engi-shiki", a code that describes the rituals and rules of the palace compiled during the Heian period, the colors using indigo are dark green, light green, yellow light green, blue green, deep green, medium hanada, and light hanada. , Deep indigo, light indigo, etc. By the way, Hanada is a light blue color with high brightness. Even if you look at such delicate color coding, you can feel the delicate aesthetic sense of the Japanese people.

However, indigo at that time was a very valuable dye, and its use was limited to the clothes of high-ranking people such as aristocrats and samurai for a long time.

It was from the Edo period that indigo dyeing became widely popular with the general public. During this period, cotton became popular, and indigo dyeing became widespread because it was dyed well. Dyeing techniques such as stencil dyeing, squeezing, and Kasuri have also developed, and Japanese people's lives have become indigo, such as work clothes, goodwill, yukata, and furoshiki.

Indigo dyeing, which was so familiar to us, began to import chemically produced synthetic indigo when the era moved to the Meiji era, and natural indigo derived from plants decreased rapidly. Nevertheless, the traditional indigo dyeing technique has been handed down. The depth and illusionary beauty that can be said to be Japanese culture will fascinate many people. Recently, the number of young makers has increased, and various items from clothes to daily necessities are dyed in natural indigo. In addition, workshops have been held in which plants are grown from raw materials and dyed by themselves, and the relationship between our lives and indigo is about to be reconsidered.