Bingata

Bingata (Okinawan: 紅型, literally "red style") is a traditional stencilled resist dyeing technique originating in Okinawa Prefecture.

Bingata typically features a busy pattern of repeating nature motifs such as fish, flowers and fauna in a number of bright colours.

Bingata dates from the Ryūkyū Kingdom period (14th century), when the island of Okinawa experienced an influx of foreign goods and manufacturing techniques.

The term bingata (紅型) was noted in the early 20th century Okinawan usage by Dr. Yoshitaro Kamakura, a Japanese scholar, to refer to painting with dyes.

[1] Bingata was then defined by Kamakura after he had studied the ancient records as connoting cochineal red with cinnabar, which was imported from Fujian, China.

[1] The techniques used in bingata are thought to have originated in Southeast Asia (possibly Java, or perhaps China or India), and arrived in the Ryukyu Kingdom through trade during the 14th century.

[2] The Ryukyu Kingdom, having a strong trade system between Korea, Japan, China and other Southeast Asian countries in the 15th and 16th centuries,[2] utilised fabric decoration techniques originating in these countries to create an independent style of dyework featuring nature-inspired designs reflecting the Ryukyu Islands.

[9] The patterns painted on the kimono were usually birds, flowers, rivers, and clouds on silk, linen, and bashofu (a cloth woven from musa basjoo fiber).

[9] The dyes for bingata are made from plants, and include Ryukyuan ai (indigo), fukugi (a high tree of Hypericum erectum family), suo (Caesalpinia sappan) and yamamomo (Myrica rubra), and as pigment, shoenji (cochineal), shu (cinnabar), sekio (orpiment), sumi (Indian ink) and gofun (aleurone)".

[12] In recent years, variations of the pigments have been created, and hibiscus, deigo flowers[13] and sugar cane leaves have been used in the designs.