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and indigo are among the many plant materials that, in the hands of Sachio Yoshioka and his dye master of 40 years, Denshi Fukuda, yield colours of every hue. The vibrancies and subtleties obtained from these vegetable dyes are manipulated by the mordants used to fix them to cloth. Mordants’ names are equally poetic: camellia ash, alum crystal, rice ash, iron, rice vinegar and dried, black smoked plums which are obtained from a 86 year old farmer in neighboring Nara, perhaps the last person who can dry plums in this way. Botanical dyes cannot create the same volume of work as a chemical dye works. Yoshioka was clear on this when he guided his family business toward tradition: ‘I cannot do something purely on commercial grounds. Not to mention, that I didn’t have the slightest idea about dyeing with synthetics, at least I had theoretical knowledge of plant colours from my experience as a publisher of ancient Japanese dyeing techniques.’ Still, Yoshioka’s dye works draws impressive clients, including important Buddhist and Shinto shrines founded in the Nara and Heian Periods, among them the formidable Todai-ji Temple and Yakushiji Temple in Nara and the magnificent Imperial Ise Jingu Shrine in Ise. Yoshioka devotes at least 2 months a year to working with these and other religious institutions. The elegance of the Heian Period has endured ten centuries. It is no small wonder when Dominique Moncourtois, Chanel’s International Director of Creation As is itecture/Corb Arch Art & ian

and indigo are among the many plant materials that, in the hands of Sachio Yoshioka and his dye master of 40 years, Denshi Fukuda, yield colours of every hue. The vibrancies and subtleties obtained from these vegetable dyes are manipulated by the mordants used to fix them to cloth. Mordants’ names are equally poetic: camellia ash, alum crystal, rice ash, iron, rice vinegar and dried, black smoked plums which are obtained from a 86 year old farmer in neighboring Nara, perhaps the last person who can dry plums in this way.

Botanical dyes cannot create the same volume of work as a chemical dye works. Yoshioka was clear on this when he guided his family business toward tradition: ‘I cannot do something purely on commercial grounds. Not to mention, that I didn’t have the slightest idea about dyeing with synthetics, at least I had theoretical knowledge of plant colours from my experience as a publisher of ancient Japanese dyeing techniques.’ Still, Yoshioka’s dye works draws impressive clients, including important Buddhist and Shinto shrines founded in the Nara and Heian Periods, among them the formidable Todai-ji Temple and Yakushiji Temple in Nara and the magnificent Imperial Ise Jingu Shrine in Ise. Yoshioka devotes at least 2 months a year to working with these and other religious institutions.

The elegance of the Heian Period has endured ten centuries. It is no small wonder when Dominique Moncourtois, Chanel’s International Director of Creation As is itecture/Corb

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