KOSOEN - Artisanal Indigo Dyer
Early 19th century travelers to Japan described the color of the land,
the color of the people Japan Blue. Indigo was everywhere.
In the work clothes of farmers, banners and signs, townspeople and their bundles,
indigo was the common language. It is still a highly prized color today and gaining rapidly in appreciation.
Taking a hint from the layers of shades of blue hills of Ome surrounding it,
Kosoen indigo dye workshop translates the colors around it onto a whole range of blue textiles: cottons, silks, ramies and heavy linens. Their tool box of techniques is filled with shibori, katazome, stencil dyeing, board clamp dyeing, tsutsugaki, and freehand designs achieved by
squeezing paste resist from a tube like a frosting applicator.
the color of the people Japan Blue. Indigo was everywhere.
In the work clothes of farmers, banners and signs, townspeople and their bundles,
indigo was the common language. It is still a highly prized color today and gaining rapidly in appreciation.
Taking a hint from the layers of shades of blue hills of Ome surrounding it,
Kosoen indigo dye workshop translates the colors around it onto a whole range of blue textiles: cottons, silks, ramies and heavy linens. Their tool box of techniques is filled with shibori, katazome, stencil dyeing, board clamp dyeing, tsutsugaki, and freehand designs achieved by
squeezing paste resist from a tube like a frosting applicator.
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Kosoen is a workplace of highly refined indigo artisans who achieve transcending shades of a luminous blue that never grow old. Their 12 indigo pots are filled with their own indigo recipe for a solution that they have fermented from composted balls of sukumo, indigo leaves, by their own recipe, indigo leaves, grown and dried laboriously by indigo growers in Tokushima.
This is the real thing, though there are many imposters who get away with calling simpler processes with chemical dyes “Indigo”. True indigo needs stirring everyday leaving an incandescent purpley flower to attest to its vitality. Giant brown indigo pots stand like sentries outside Kosoen in front and in the garden. And if you are lucky, you might arrive in time to see the morning’s or afternoon’s dyeing hung out on racks to dry, - a thrilling sight!
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Solid deep blues, marbleized blues and whites that have been board clamped on silk and ramie gossamer, shibori dyed T shirts, straight deep blue jackets. It is hard to believe that Ome too is Tokyo with old houses, trees and streams and stone saints, Jizo, and sake breweries still holding out against urban sprawl. The Murata family, descended from an old tradition of Ome Jima dyers, a specialized skill of weaving stripes, founded Kosoen in 1990. Trained in Tokushima, the capital of Indigo in Japan, Hiroshi Murata is the dye master and overseer of the workshop. His older brother is the business manager. They teach aspiring young dyers in the indigo craft that Hiroshi learned over 35 years ago in Tokushima
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from Nii san, one of the 5 principal cultivators and dyers of indigo. Kosoen is distinguished not only by the beautiful tones of indigo blue they achieve, but also by their use of innovative textiles that have been created in the surrounding area of Hachioji.
They continue to develop new exciting textiles based on centuries old techniques of dyeing and weaving. Besides indigo, they also use persimmon and charcoal and other natural colors to dye their cloth. But their blue is supreme! While indigo can sometimes be mundane and lackluster, Kosoen blue soars higher, digs deeper and last longer than other indigos. To have one of Kosoen’s creations only makes you want another, and another. Together you will only grow old with grace and character.
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