Shibori

Shibori (しぼり/絞り, from the verb root shiboru – "to wring, squeeze or press"[1]: 7 ) is a Japanese manual tie-dyeing technique, which produces a number of different patterns on fabric.

Much of the debate surrounds the technical capacities within Japan at the time to produce the variety of fabrics seen in some of the earliest shibori examples.

[1] One of the earliest written descriptions of shibori dates to 238 CE, where it was recorded in the of the Chinese document Treatise on the Wa People that Queen Himiko gifted the emperor of Cao Wei over 200 yards (180 m) of "spotted cloth" – potentially describing a form of wax-resist decoration on the fabric.

[1] The earliest surviving examples of shibori-dyed cloth date back to the mid-8th century, donated to the Tōdai-ji Buddhist temple in Nara in 756 CE, as part of the goods donated by the Emperor Shōmu upon his death.

Differing techniques may be combined in some cases to achieve increasingly more elaborate results.

Because no knot is used, miura shibori is very easy to bind and unbind, making this technique commonly used.

Beni itajime textiles were lining-weight fabrics dyed with pictorial patterns using red safflower (beni) dye,[a] and were used for underlayers or linings as recently as the early Shōwa period (1926–1989), with production centred around Kyoto and Takasaki, Gunma Prefecture, a city known for the production of fine, lightweight silks.

The research discovered that the boards used in the beni itajime process were lacquered on all but the sides and centre to resist the dye, and were soaked in water for 2 weeks before dyeing, as dry boards would warp and distort the resist.

[4]: 4  The fabric was folded using the maki tatami technique, before a thin starch paste was applied to the faces of the boards to aid in the adhesion of the silk to its surface.

[4]: 5–6  This resulted in a perfect recreation of the crisp red-and-white pictorial designs of older beni itajime fabrics.