We Love Kimono Project 9
Jizome 地染, the process of dyeing the kimono fabric with the base color, is complete. The Fuse-nori 伏糊, the paste applied onto the designs to resist the base color to penetrate the fabric, has been washed away. The Itome 糸目, the finely drawn design, is still intact on the fabric. At this stage, the craftsman moves on to the next step: Irosashi色挿し.
Irosashi 色挿し
Iro 色means colors. Sashi 挿しmeans to apply. In this process, the craftsman directly applies different colors of dye onto the fabric using small brushes. Bordered by Itome, one color is not mixed with the neighboring color. Like freehand painting, the number of colors to be used is almost limitless. That’s the distinct characteristics of Tegaki Yuzen 手描き友禅.
With the medashi of my obi right next to the Itome design of the kimono fabric, the Yuzen craftsman decides which color to apply where.
Depending upon the size of the area, s/he uses different sizes and shapes of the brush. For creating gradation, s/he uses a flat-tip brush. Since this Islamic Flower design is so fine, the craftsman mainly uses brushes with pointed tips.
Once the irosashi 色挿し is complete, the fabric is again steamed and then rinsed with water. This time Itome is washed away along with the excess dye. The lines created with Itome are now shown in white.
I placed the photo of the medashi of my obi (left) and the one of the Yuzen pattern of my kimono (right) next to each other. The shape of the design and the color gradation are almost identical, but the outer circle is more prominent on the kimono fabric. This subtle difference gives the illusion that the two designs are somewhat different whereas harmony is still maintained. Very cool, Kosaka-san. I like the way it turned out.