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Today we will write about a special nagoya obi, which I saw at an kimono auction in Kyoto. At recent auctions, most items are not so old, mainly from Taisho period to mid Showa period. So I often decrease alertness about offering items, but also in such items, we sometimes come across very rare items among them. About a moth ago, a nagoya obi was offered in such auction - when it was offered, some bidders buzzed. The nagoya obi had exotic dyed pattern, whose design seemed to be from India or Thailand. Textile is thin cotton and has shinny texture. For me, it looked antique sarasa cotton, but textile seemed to be too thin and thick like machine spun cotton, so I was not sure about its age - it might be contemporary Indian sarasa fabric. And only after couple of minutes, auctioneer said the starting price( I forgot the price, but anyway it was not expensive price), and several dealers bid at a time. Bidders' prices were way expensive than the starting price, and winner's price was nearly 200000 yen(1800USD). Several bidders knew the nagoya obi was made in India in the late 18th century, and imported to Japan and re-made to nagoya obi. I have seen such old imported sarasa cotton, but at that time, I was not sure about its age, and I felt frustrated about my lack of knowledge. As you must know, the headwaters of cotton and dyeing cotton is India. After the industrial revolution(late 17th century), spinning and weaving cotton became the industry of Western countries, but before that, India was the front line of cotton - they cultivated cotton, and spun cotton yarn and wove cotton textile, and dyed red. Western and also Japanese people were astonished to touch Indian cotton, which was thin and soft like silk. Cotton is also difficult to be dyed compared to other textile like silk, so in the age, Japanese and Western people couldn't dye cotton red with enough fastness to washing. One of the main items of East India Company was such cotton textile and lots of cotton textiles are exported to Western countries and became very popular among people. Indian people also made and dyed cotton with the taste of exporting countries - cotton textile was exported not only to Western but also to Thailand and Japan, and there remains old Indian cotton, which had the Japanese traditional design. Most amazing matter is that there exists incredibly thin cotton fabric - usually hand spun cotton yarn is thick and uneven, and now, only machine can spin very thin and even cotton yarn. However, some old Indian cotton fabrics were woven with VERY thin and even hand spun threads, which NO ONE CAN HAND SPIN. Now such spinning technique is thought to be missing, and researchers say it is already enigma. Now, we are used to thin and even cotton fabric, because machine can make it at very lower cost, but people before industrial revolution had to be astonished to have such Indian thin cotton fabric. After the industrial revolution, the value of thin hand spun cotton fabrics dropped - it was very normal that similar machine spun cotton fabric replaced expensive (compared to machine spun one) hand spun cotton. Such textiles which were made in India in the age, are unfortunately missing. In the birth country India, because of their climate and poverty, and in the Western countries, mainly because of loss of interest to antique textiles. However, here in Japan, such imported textiles have been used carefully to wrap tea ceremony items (for examples, wrapping tea bowls, and as 'shihuku' for wrapping natsume ), and still now we can find such textiles. We think it is amazing and very valuable to know the history of cotton textiles. We hear that now Indian textile pursuers come to Japan to find their antique cotton textiles! Now we think we must know more about such textiles and when we find among vintage items, we must take them care. Otherwise, such valuable textiles will be missing for all eternity. And then, I have had a serious question. Can we distinguish between 'old thin HAND spun cotton' vs 'old MACHINE spun cotton' only with looking and touching the fabrics? I asked several very famous old kimono textile dealers - some said it was impossible, and some said it was possible although it was not explained by language. And Otani san, who is thought to be the most knowledgeable antique textile collector/dealer says -- 'It is definitely possible if you once precisely look them with microscope.They are apparently different. Please come to my house and look and enjoy them with microscope!' Next Sunday, I am going to visit her house. We will inform you the secret in the future mail news! Today I visited a famous antique textile dearler/collector, and learned about antique cotton, mainly about Indian sarasa cotton - chintz. She showed us her and her customers very best chintz collections, and explained us their allurement. We have seen similar ones in the museum last year, but we had to see them beyond the glass at the museum, and of course, we couldn't touch them nor check their textiles with microscope Today we could touch and see with microscope, and we could compare them with later age's ones. The best chintz are elaborately hand painted, and its design is TOO charming and has special kind of cute and spontaneous design - birds, animals and flowers are vividly designed, which make us warm. Technical features are - vivid red color is dyed with rubia, and blue part is dyed ai ( dipped in the ai with remain parts are covered with candle wax - so the blue ai parts are same pattern in the both right and wrong side), and the most valuable 'kin-sarasa'(gold chintz) is added gold leaf on the lines. I felt I found the charm of genuine old chintz for the first in my life. And about textile, the best pieces are made of very smooth and thin cotton, which was hand spun and hand woven. Before the spinner was invented in 1779, only Indian people could span such delicate, thin and smooth cotton like silk. Today we are used to fine count cotton, which is used for dress shirt, but in the 18 century, people didn't have such cotton in their country. For comparison, I touched Japanese cotton fabrics from Edo period - some are woven with thin threads, but their touches are way textured compared to them. So not only Japanese, but Western people had to be astonished by their incredibly smooth touch. Such chintz's cotton textile is so thin and smooth, so there is a strong resemblance to machine spun fine count cotton. She said, 'Check with this microscope carefully, and compared them. They are completely different! They are woven tightly than machine spun ones!'. As you must understand, expert people can see the difference easily in any field, which usual people can not find any difference. 8 years ago, we had to burn textiles to tell the jinken(rayon), but now we often tell the textile from a distance without touch. She has to see the difference like this. However, about the Japanese cotton/asa, I found the good hint. Most chintz are woven with Z-spun(left spun) cotton. And most spinners in the early ages also spun Z-spun(left spun) threads. So the direction of spinning can not be the clue to tell between hand spun, but Japanese hand spun cotton always have S-spun(right spun). In the late Edo period, quite amount of cotton textiles were imported to Japan, so we can find both hand spun cotton and imported machine spun cotton at the age, but we can tell them with the direction of spinning. In addition, Japanese cotton threads are shorter than Indian ones, so the texture of the Japanese cotton is fuzzier than imported cotton. We don't have such very best chintz a the moment, so we are sorry for not being able to share the photos. Such chintz are very rare, and we rarely come across them. In future, if we can find and get them, we will list them at our site. Here is a sample photo of chintz. http://www.vandaimages.com/results.asp?image=2006BB2840-01&wwwflag=1&imagepos=9 Please add your comment here! †Original text is written by Ichiro on 13/20th Dec 2009. You can read the original text in this frozen page Travel To Antique Fabric - Chintz(Original) This site is hosted by ICHIROYA |
