Indigo Dye Challenge Vol.1
Hello, I’m Mushi, a founder of Yin Yang from Kyoto.
After the spring equinox days in March, the season of cherry blossoms is coming soon, the sightseeing season of Kyoto is coming. Everyone is waiting for the comfortable spring weather and beautiful cherry blossoms, but my heart is headed for the end of summer.
Today, I sowed Indigo seeds with my daughter. Historically, indigo was a natural dye extracted from the leaves of certain plants, and this process was important economically because blue dyes were extremely rare. In Japan, AWAAI, a type of natural dye in Tokushima prefecture, is famous for its dark blue colour and called “Japan Blue”.
Usually, Indigo dyes use fermented leaves such as AWAAI but fresh leaves are also available for dyeing.
I want to enjoy the process of creating Japanese natural dyes, and find out the difference between Balinese and Japanese dyes. As such, I am trying to cultivate Indigo leaves by myself!
I am hoping to create some Indigo dye with fresh leaves when summer comes around, so my heart is flying to summer, skipping spring.
The seed will sprout in about 10 days. I will update you guys again next time.
At the end of August, I hope to report light blue textiles made of fresh leaves. I will carefully nurture it.
Indigo is also useful as a medical herb; its leaves and berries have the effect of detoxification, odor elimination and protection from insects.
There are a wide variety of natural dyes in Japan, distributed according to the area's climate. I would like to share my knowledge of natural dyes and introduce it to more people.
