When I took over the family business,
I thought about dyeing with only natural dyes.

Yukio Yoshioka took over his family's dyeing and weaving workshop at the age of 42 and has been recreating Japanese colors using only natural dyes. In 2016, ``Japanese Colors: 70 Colors'' by Yoshioka Someno Tsukasa was included in the permanent collection of the Victoria & Albert (V&A) Museum in the UK. Yoshioka was an editor before taking over his family's business, which had been going on since the Edo period.

``After graduating from university, I worked as an editor and ran away from the family business.I joined an art publishing company, so my job was to go to museums.At the V&A Museum, there was a study room. It doesn't exist anymore. There were 1,000 pieces of fabric inside something like a frame. There were almost no people in the room, so it was a good place to take a closer look at the pieces. The old ones are much nicer and have better quality.I wondered why the old ones were better.That's because chemical dyes were used in the 1800's after the Industrial Revolution.I worked as a dyer for about 30 years. I do it, but I think vegetable dyeing is the most beautiful."

Yoshioka began talking often with the curators of the V&A Museum, and his presence gradually began to be recognized. Then, people around him started paying attention to him. “I never expected that vegetable dyeing would attract so much attention,” says Yoshioka. The exhibition ``Yukio Yoshioka's In Search of Forgotten Colours'' has been so popular that the exhibition has been extended until January 2020.

Yoshioka's workshop is located in Fushimi Ward, Kyoto City. The Uji River flows nearby, and Fushimi, a sake producer, is nearby. ``What makes us unique is our water. We draw water from a depth of 100 meters. There are sake breweries like Gekkeikan and Kizakura nearby, but our water is better (lol). It's medium-hard water, so it's sweet. and low iron content."

The colors dyed with water from the well, which they are proud of, are transparent and vivid. ``From around the Asuka period, the color of clothing became important in Japan.In order to dye various colors, materials were also purchased from overseas.There is a tree called Suo.The core of this tree However, since it is a tropical plant, there is no choice but to import it.Japanese colors are produced by Japanese people, and are not dyed only with Japanese materials. ”.

The proof is at Shosoin in Nara. The materials used for dyeing and weaving have also been passed down here. As Yoshioka says, ``We too want to go to Shosoin, get some Suho, and dye it.'' Some of the pieces even have tags with Suho written on them. There are also crafts made from the Soho tree itself. ``There are no storehouses in other countries that even have heritage items of dyeing and weaving materials,'' says Yoshioka, who goes to the Shosoin Exhibition every year to come face-to-face with dyed and weaving products from a long time ago. He often stands still, moved by the masterful techniques of his predecessors.

When I visited the workshop, dyers were dyeing kimono cloth, cotton cloth, handkerchiefs, washi paper, and other items. Nearby, a pot of some kind of plant is bubbling away. When I asked about it, I was told that it was a plant called madder that dyed red.

``The appearance of vegetable dyed materials produces colors that you wouldn't imagine.You need a technique to bring out the best colors.You have to bring out the colors from a hidden place.It's impossible to do that unless it's a sophisticated color. It's like a combination of plants and the earth.''

Beside the indigo vat, a craftsman was dyeing a handkerchief, counting the seconds. Indigo is fermented and stored as sukumo, then placed in a jar with lye, bran added, and fermented. This is called ``building the indigo.'' When the temperature reaches 20 degrees or above, dyeing becomes possible.

If you dye it for a short period of time, it will become a pale indigo color. This color is called ``kamenozoki.'' They say it's because the cloth comes out just by looking into the indigo vat, and it's also because the color is so pale that it looks like the sky is reflected in the water in the vat. In any case, it's a name that suggests a love for color. The ancient Japanese color names reflect their relationship with nature.

→ Continue to the vivid colors of Japan recreated by Yukio Yoshioka (Part 2)
(Titles omitted)

Sachio Yoshioka
Born in 1946. Born in Kyoto Prefecture. After he graduated from Waseda University, he worked at a publishing company. Born in 1988, he is the fifth generation of his family, Yoshioka Someji. She won the Kimono Culture Award in 1991. In 2000, she published ``Japanese Color Dictionary''. Received the Kyoto Prefecture Cultural Award Distinguished Service Award in 2009 and the 2010th Hiroshi Kikuchi Award in 58. In 2011, the documentary film “Murasaki” was released. Received the 2012rd Japan Broadcasting Corporation Broadcast Culture Award in 63. 2016 V&A Museum (UK) permanent collection ``70 Colors of Japan''. In 2018, "Yukio Yoshioka's Works Exhibition: In Search of Lost Colors" was held at the V&A Museum (UK).
https://www.sachio-yoshioka.com