Sheila Cliffe 
(©Sheila Cliffe)
The cardboard cutout mountains in shades of blue, on the horizon, remind me that the town of Hanyu is on the north-east edge of Saitama and the Kanto plain. This flat low-lying area has a long history with blue. The Tone River has flooded the area many times, and the resulting soil is sandy but mineral-rich. Water from the river is plentiful, making this area perfect for growing indigo.
Other such flood plains that became famous for growing indigo are Tokushima, which still grows it, and northern Kyushu which was once famous for its blue and white kasuri weaving.
Indigo is More than a Color
In the case of Hanyu, cotton was also grown, dyed in local indigo and woven into cloth, known as aojima. This history goes back 250 years. There are still several dyeing workshops in this area, although the introduction of Indian indigo, and then chemical indigo put paid to the indigo industry here.
My personal connections with Japanese clothing, wafuku, are usually with the kimono, but there are several other kinds of important Japanese clothing.
In the case of Hanyu, the clothing produced was traditionally farming wear. Although there is little written about the healthful properties of indigo in English, many Japanese believe that there are health benefits in wearing it. It is believed to be both cooling in summer and warming in winter and to have antiseptic and healing properties. The smell of the dye keeps away insects, an important factor for farm workers.
Another important benefit is that indigo-dyed cloth is more resistant to fire than other dyes, which made it perfect for fire-fighters in the Edo period. These are some of the reasons why indigo dyeing has been so popular in Japan, apart from the beautiful range of colors that can be produced, from a pale sky blue to a very dark navy blue. It is sometimes even called Japan Blue.
A Family Legacy
I visited Nogawa Senshoku Company, founded in 1914. There, I was shown around by Nogawa Masatoshi, the fourth-generation head of the company. I was also introduced to Nogawa Yuki, the fifth-generation son, who is also working in the family business.
Around 70% of their business is now the making of clothing for the martial art kendo, rather than farming wear. The skill and care that goes into making these garments, all onsite, was quite amazing to behold.
The postwar buildings have the typical saw-edged roofs of weaving workshops throughout Japan, but these are rare ones still in use. The rows of windows in these distinctive roofs always face north to ensure an even light for workers throughout the whole day.
From outside the buildings, one can smell the distinctive aroma of natural indigo and hear the looms clacking away. Unlike other indigo workshops I have visited, Nogawa Senshoku dyes the threads rather than dyeing the finished cloth. This is an important difference, as repeated dyeing at the thread stage of production makes the dyes into an integral part of the fibers in a way that dyeing finished fabric does not.
A Living Organism
The cotton arrives, mainly from Pakistan or India, in the form of cheeses, which are unraveled and made into hanks. These are then stretched by hand repeatedly to ensure that each loop is of a uniform length for even dyeing.
A storehouse holds the balls of Sukumo indigo, which comes from Tokushima. The indigo leaves have been picked before the plant flowers and have gone through a long process of fermentation and drying. These Sukumo indigo balls are full of microorganisms and can be kept in dry form indefinitely.
The indigo vats are sunken into the floor and the indigo is refermented in them. Nogawa explains to me that only half of the dyer's time is spent dyeing, the other half is spent caring for the indigo, because it is a living organism. It must be stirred, kept at the same temperature, and it is fed with wheat husks. The water for dyeing comes underground from the Tone River.
A Slow and Careful Process
The young indigo has many flowers (bubbles) on top, from vigorous fermentation, and the older indigo has less. A unique machine with a series of levers, wheels, and pullies holds nine hanks over the dye vats.
The hanks are first dipped slowly into the oldest indigo, raised and wrung out with a twisting motion, and then turned and dipped again. After this, they move on to the next dye vat. Repeated dipping, squeezing, and contact with oxygen ensure that a beautiful even dye color will be produced.
This is a very time-consuming process. After the hanks are dyed, they are dried out. And before they are put on looms, they must be returned to cheeses. The threads are then ready to be sorted and measured for weaving.
Weaving Indigo into Modern Life
The weaving workshop was introduced after the war, and an on-site sewing workshop allows the entire process — up to the finished garment — to be completed here.
Up to around 3,000 warp threads are used, and special jacquard patterns are applied to the fabrics. These are required for the thick protective clothing used for kendo wear.
The use of lighter and darker dyed warp threads creates a fabric with a dark front and lighter reverse side. Various woven patterns are produced, and some fabrics are then stenciled to create repeated patterns with the dye removed.
Nogawa Senshoku sells pants, shirts, scarves, and other clothing and sheets in their factory shop Kamenozoki and online. The kendo wear is marketed under the label Bushuu Ichi. I'm interested in the health benefits of this beautiful fabric.
As Nogawa tells me that no one working in the workshop has ever died of cancer, I think it won't do me any harm to invest in a samue, jacket, and pants for lounging around in. I may find health benefits as well as being able to enjoy the slow softening of the fabric and aging of the color over many years.
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Author: Sheila Cliffe
Read other columns on kimono by the author.
