Kakishibu Dyeing III: Simple is the way

 

Now we start actually dyeing a fabric with Kakishibu. It’s very easy. There is not much elaborated procedure as long as we simply dye cloth without making pattern.

1. First, wash the fabric with detergent to remove any chemical coating. For Kakishibu dyeing, it does not matter if the material is the protein-based, i.e. wool, silk, et al, or not, i.e. cotton, linen, et al. For the standard natural dyeing, we have to make it sure if the fabric contains protein. For cotton and linen, as they are vegetable base, before dyeing we have to dip the material in soy milk. In contrast, Kakishibu can put color for any natural fabric. It’s enough to remove the layer of chemical that can block Kakishibu.

2. Make sure the fabric is damp.

3. Concoct Kakishibu solution for dyeing. “How to” depends on the thickness of Kakishibu concentrate we purchase. For our case in Niiharu, 150-200ml Kakishibu was diluted by 200ml of water, i.e. 1 to 1, for 34g of pure cotton to be dyed. Don’t forget to use a stainless or plastic bowl, unless you plan to dye the container simultaneously.

The bottle we bought via internet.

Diluting the concentration.

4. Soak the damp fabric in Kakishibu liquid and rub the liquid into the fabric for about 10 minutes.

The cotton was put into the liquid.

Working on it.
Please use good rubber gloves in this process.

5. Squeeze the liquid and dry the fabric completely.

Drying

You can repeat the process #1-5 as much as you like while the solution remains in the bowl. The more you rub the liquid, the more the color deeper. I did the process 3 times, and here is what I obtained.

At this stage, the texture of a fabric is “stiff.” When you plan to have rough feel from the Kakishibu-dyed fabric, you should stop here. Or you can proceed to mordant. Mordant liquid will make your hardened fabric return to soft. When you use alum as mordant, the color of the fabric becomes brighter. In contrast, with iron-mordant the color turns dark grey. The standard for mordant process requires 10 minutes or so of bathing the dyed fabric in mordant. Here is what I get from my hand-made iron mordant.

Iron bathing let the color of the fabric this dark. After 10 minutes, squeeze the fabric and wash it with water. Squeeze the liquid well and dry it completely.

I simply expected the color of my mini-tote remained such grey of immediately after-drying. Nah. When the bag was dried entirely, it becomes like this.

I am very happy to meet this sudden blueish grey. Such unexpected encounter should be the charm of Kakishibu dyeing. I found the entire process uncomplicated. I think I’ll try dyeing another fabric with Kakishibu especially for some outdoor cloth. No wonder our ancestors used the liquid so often for many materials to make them sturdy. Simple is the best!

If you find a problem in the greenery of north-half of Yokohama, please make contact with

Office for the Park Greeneries in the North
北部公園緑地事務所
Yokohama Municipal Government Green Environment Bureau
横浜市みどり創造局

Phone: 045-353-1166
FAX：045-352-3086
email: mk-hokubukoen@city.yokohama.lg.jp

Kakishibu Dyeing II: how to make iron mordant for natural dyeing

 

Let me tell you how to make iron mordant for Kakishibu dyeing. This mordant can be used for any natural dyeing for making the dyed color in darker shade. Knowing the process may be useful for natural dyeing beginners.

<Necessary items to make iron mordant for natural dyeing>

1. Steel wool: For this, I was stupid. At the beginning I thought stainless steel is steel so that we can use it for making mordant. Of course, Nah. We need good-ol steel wool. I waited for about a week with stainless steel wool to be stained and was naturally disappointed. Stained? I explain it below.

2. A glass jar with a lid

3. H2O 

4. White vinegar; the cheapest would do the perfect job. The required acidity is 4-5%.

Steel wool. No-no to stainless!

Now here is how to. It’s simple if you can avoid the obvious mistake of using stainless steel!

1. Wet the steel wool in a jar thoroughly. At this stage, no need to fill the jar of steel wool by water. Leave the jar as such without lid. The objective of this process is to rust the entire wool. The damp steel wool should react with O2 in the air. No-rid could accelerate the chemical reaction between iron and O2. But it can dry the wool quickly before becoming rusty. Keep moisturizing the steel is the key. Please be attentive.

2. When the entire steel wool becomes rusty, add water. I simply added H2O in the jar until the wool is completely soaked.

3. Add white vinegar. The ratio of water and vinegar is 1 to 1. But no need to be exact. I poured vinegar in eyeballed amount. My jar looked like

4. Close the jar with a lid and leave it in the shade for at least 24 hours. Leave the jar longer, the mordant becomes stronger. As I was in a mess with my PC Topy 5, I left it for more than two weeks, and the jar became

The darker the color, the quality of the mordant is better. I achieved it without intention. Phew, thank God. This blackish liquid is hand-made iron mordant. To use it, strain the liquid with paper coffee filter, and use it at the concentration of your choice. The more iron concentrated for the mordant, the darker the stabilized color of dyed fabric. I dunked my Kakishibu dyed linen bag in the mordant without adding water for about 15 minutes. In the stainless (Yes!) bowl, the color of the bag looked like

How it turned to the end product is a surprise. More to it, in addition to how to Kakishibu dyeing, is for next week. 😉

If you find a problem in the greenery of north-half of Yokohama, please make contact with

Office for the Park Greeneries in the North
北部公園緑地事務所
Yokohama Municipal Government Green Environment Bureau
横浜市みどり創造局

Phone: 045-353-1166 

FAX：045-352-3086
email: mk-hokubukoen@city.yokohama.lg.jp

Kakishibu dyeing I

 

I told you to wear rubber gloves and an overall when you work with Kakishibu (; my post for September 14, 2025). The reason covering ourselves is, the strong tannic acid can remain as a stain when it lands on a fabric. i.e. Kakishibu is very strong natural dye. Just search internet for word “Kakishibu.” You’ll find numerous artists who work with the liquid for their creation of natural dyeing. This week, I begin telling you about my adventure with persimmon tannin for natural dye. Oh, one thing before starting. Kakishibu dyeing can be completed in just one day if you like. But when you take time to dry the dyed fabric before proceeding to the next step, the color can progress into something with depth. The acid reacts with O2. + UV light stimulates the response, which develops the color more. The sunlight makes wonder for Kakishibu dyeing. You can go slow and enjoy how coloring turns as time goes by. As I’m having a hubbub with my PC Topy 5, my dyeing has taken more than one month while I leave the fabric on the clothesline for days. It may be just my imagination, but it seemed to me the color evolved into subtle expression. Actually, the fabric dyed by Kakishibu will be aged for years. It would be one of the attractions the material provides.

The color of my bag when it is dyed
with Kakishibu for the first time.

My Kakishibu-dyed mini-bag,
after about a month of dyeing.
The color, I think, was stabilized in this way.

Let’s start groundwork. Here are the necessary items we need to arrange before dyeing:

1. A bowl made of stainless steel, plastics, or wood. Never made of iron, as before.

2. Kakishibu, available from Amazon et al, or handmade of 3+ years of work.

3. H2O.

4. Fabric to be dyed.

5. Mordant liquid: Alum for the final product with light earth color, or aqueous solution of iron for darker color, more to it below. Rubber gloves, and a work jacket or the like.

A bottle of store-bought Kakishibu.

Unlike the standard natural dyeing, Kakishibu does not

1. Choose fabric. Normally, we need protein-based yarn as wool, or we have to soak vegetable-based fabric, as cotton and linen, in soy milk or the like in order to make the material coated with protein. Kakishibu doesn’t care about such things. We can apply Kakishibu liquid to wood, washi paper and leather as well. Kakishibu applied material becomes “harder” and “more durable.” That’s the reason why samurai warriors applied it to their armor.

2. Require cooking with heat. It is often the case we cook a fabric in boiled staining solution for natural dyeing. No need with Kakishibu. 

So, Kakishibu dyeing is technically easy. It even does not ask mordant. If you like, you can leave the dyed fabric as such without applying mordant. On the other hand, with mordant the change in color becomes slow. Especially for fabric mordant makes the final product softer. (Wood panel applied with Kakishibu does not change its hardness with mordant, I tell you.)

Two colors.
Iron mordant is applied to dark-grey part.

Having said that, applying mordant turns the color of dyed fabric into different hues. When we use alum, the color becomes lighter. With iron, the color of the fabric is blackish gray. If we repeat “dye fabric, then apply mordant” several times, it can make the color in deeper tone. Such protean results are also the attraction of Kakishibu dyeing. For alum mordant, we just use alum powder for kitchen. We dissolve a couple of tablespoonful powder completely in 500ml of hot water, then add 2L of cold water. The alum mordant is ready. Dunk the Kakishibu-dyed and dried fabric for 10 minutes or so in a mordant. Voila, its color turns lighter. For iron mordant, it takes a bit more process to make, but no cooking. Let me explain it next week.

A dyed bag with different hue using alum and iron for mordant.
A person who made it uses die board to make this pattern.

If you find a problem in the greenery of north-half of Yokohama, please make contact with

Office for the Park Greeneries in the North
北部公園緑地事務所
Yokohama Municipal Government Green Environment Bureau
横浜市みどり創造局

Phone: 045-353-1166 

FAX：045-352-3086
email: mk-hokubukoen@city.yokohama.lg.jp

Spring Preparation: Natural dyeing with plum branches

 

Speaking plums, to have flowers opening in early spring, we have to take care of them. That is, we need to prune their branches and twigs which often go whichever direction they find convenient. If we leave them as they please, the entire tree ends up with tangled branches. During summer when they have lots of leaves, the system of branches and leaves has poor ventilation = infested by pests and mold. Inevitably, they will not have flowers, and no fruits will be harvested. On the other hand, during summer they do vigorous photosynthesis and so they need leaves. If we trim them during summer, the tree will be starved, and no flower could be expected, or, worse, the tree could die. So, we have to prune them sufficiently at the right moment. The timing of removing unruly twigs is after they shed their leaves in late autumn. The amount of cutting is … it’s difficult to say definitely. But several sure points are

1. We should remove twigs shoot up straight from the bough which will become the base of tangled up tree branches,
2. We have to be careful to cut branches that have winter buds. Reason? Obvious, isn’t it?

It’s a sorry state of a plum orchard in Niiharu.
I’ve never seen flowers here.
The place became accessible for Niiharu Lovers last year.
(Till then, it was a private property, off-limit for us.)
Let us see what we can do here.

Lovers of Niiharu take care of this plum tree,
and yearly harvest plum fruits.
Even though, the branches are like this.

So, I pruned twigs and branches of plum trees in my mom’s garden last fall. They are small trees and did not require me much effort. Besides, this year I had another mission from the gardening. I decided to use cut branches of plum trees for natural dyeing. Although the trees of my mom are small, the amount of trimmed twigs required two 20L garbage bags if I disposed of them straight to the garbage collectors. It’s a pity doing this especially when we can utilize them, so I thought. This week I tell you my adventure of natural dyeing with these plum twigs.

Mom’s plum flower this February. My labour of love 😊

First, we have to prepare the pruned branches for dyeing. I chose the standard method of natural dyeing: stewing the plants for a while to extract their dye and dunk the fabric in the colouring-stew. In order to obtain the dye essence efficiently, it’s better the “meat” of the plant thoroughly stewed. If the plant is a tree with a hard body, we need to julienne or mince them … Plum trees have robust bough. When the twigs were young, it was easy to chop them by scissors. But when they reached 0.5cm or so diameter, making minced twigs became really a hard work. I quickly gave up making minced plum trees and did a bit of googling how pros were doing. They use only the barks of plum tree for dyeing. Bravo! I employed this approach, but still, it was a hard work peeling the barks with a machete …

The trimmed twigs from mom’s trees.

Minced plum twigs. This was the limit I could handle.

Next, I folded these minced twigs and barks in drain-nets, close the mouths tightly, and threw them in a boiling pot.

The drain-nets

The minced twigs and peeled barks are in the nets.

The oven I borrowed from the Niiharu Lovers’ Association.

Boiling …

The nets were thrown in the pot.

After about an hour boiling the pot had rose-like colour. We were ready for dyeing. For natural dyeing we use fabric of animal origin, like silk and wool. When we plan to dye plant-based fabrics like cotton or linen, we must first soak the fabric in soy milk overnight and dry it. i.e. The protein has the power to bond with natural dye. This time, I found a bargain silk downtown, so I did not have to take this stage.

The pot an hour later. Could you figure out the tinged liquid inside?

Dunking a fabric with protein in the dye, and let it keep boiling. This time I stewed it for about an hour.

We’re plunging the silk in the pot.
On that day, kids from near-by junior-high
came to experience natural dyeing.

Then, mixed the fabric in the pot with chop sticks for a while.

The silk an hour later

An hour later, the white silk now had this colour. It was damned hot so I drained it carefully and gentry, then bathed the dyed silk in alum solution. It was to settle the color in the fabric. Alum is a fixative. Internet says many things about the concentration ratio for alum-bath, but among Niiharu-Lovers “It’s not important as long as the solution has enough alum dissolved.” So, I added about 2 tablespoons of alum in 10L water.

Alum and 10L water

Let the dyed fabric swim in the alum solution for a while, about 10 or 15 minutes. Drained it and washed it in a cold water. Squeezed the liquid from the fabric, and let it air dry. Don’t you find the colour of the silk lovely?

The silk is taking fixative bath of alum.

The pot after taking out the fabric.
It’s a lovely colour.
If you want to have more deeper colour on your fabric,
you use the liquid for the second round
after rinsing it with water.

There is another choice of fixing agent for natural dyeing. It‘s by iron. We can use nails for that, otherwise we purchase iron mordant liquid from internet. In general, iron fixing produces grey to dark brown color ... It‘s a matter of taste. For both cases, the liquid waste from dyeing can safely drained in forest when that’s not a huge amount like our natural dyeing adventure. I‘m going to use my pinky-orange dyed silk for spring throw-on. 😊 Better to have light color for this, don‘t you think?

Drying

It‘ll be my spring throw-on.💕🎵

If you find a problem in the greenery of north-half of Yokohama, please make a contact with

Office for the Park Greeneries in the North
北部公園緑地事務所
Yokohama Municipal Government Creative Environment Policy Bureau
横浜市環境創造局
Phone: 045-311-2016
FAX: 045-316-8420