This book was written by Kozo Takeda, a 15th generation descendant from one of the founders of Arimatsu Village, known for its shibori artisans and one of the oldest artisan guilds in the world.
The book highlights numerous shiborizome techniques—a Japanese version of resist dyeing. This volume shows the incredible mastery and knowledge of how a specific tying, binding, twisting, folding, wrapping, or stitching keeps dye from penetrating textiles when submerged in the vat to create incredible and diverse patterns.
Shibori techniques:
Ex. 3, 4, 10, 11, 14
Nui Shibori uses a running stitch to pull
together cloth and create areas of resist. The thread must
be pulled tightly for it to function properly. While this
technique is very time consuming, it provides greater
variety in the pattern.
Ex. 17, 23, 27
Kumo Shibori, also called spider tie-dye,
involves evenly tying entire sections of the fabric. This
creates a very tight design of a repeating pattern that,
combined, looks like a spider’s web.
Ex. 30
Itajime Shibori uses shapes to create resist.
Fabric is folded and then tied between two blocks of a
particular form before being submerged in the dye vat.
This creates a repeating image of the block.
Ex. 37, 39, 40, 41
Miura Shibori involves a hooked needle pulling up
a piece of the textile, and that section is then tied off.
Ex. 45
Kanoko Shibori involves tying small pieces of the
textile in a pinched knot. Each is carefully tied by hand,
creating slight variations in the pattern.
Ex. 48
Yanagi Shibori, also called Willow
Shibori, is created by pleating and then tying
the cloth before dyeing. It creates lines that mimic
branches of a weeping willow.
Ex. 62, 65
Arashi Shibori is a pole-wrapping technique where
the fabric is wrapped in a diagonal along a post, wrapped,
and scrunched to create a specific diagonal design.