On my most recent trip to Japan I visited my favourite vintage textiles shop near Hida Folk Village in Takayama.

The elder lady that runs the shop is a delight. She speaks little English but way more than my Japanese but we somehow always manage to work things out!

This time she had a big box of these wonderful indigo dyed Katazome fabrics.

Katazome is dyeing using a rice paste resist with finely cut paper stencils (cutting these, Katagami, is a whole craft in itself…..).

The rice paste takes hours to steam and has to dry completely after being applied through the stencil to create the pattern.

What is amazing is that the pasted stencil is perfectly matched down a whole bolt of fabric before it gets dyed in Japanese indigo.

This is a technically demanding and highly skilled job.

There are six different pieces:

1. Large flowers with dots in petals connected by Arabesques also with dots (dark indigo)

2. Flower motifs made from dots inside connected hexagon bordsers (grey blue indigo)

3. Stylised flowers with swirly arabesques with dots inside (mid blue indigo) - 1

4. Stylised flowers with swirly arabesques with dots inside (mid blue indigo) - 2

5. Chrysanthemums with tendrils (dark blue indigo)

6. Stylised flowers and leaves set in a dot border and surrounded by dots (mid blue indigo)