Arimatsu Shibori Matsuri part 1

Tie-Dye, not just for hippies anymore!  


Every year, during the first weekend of June, the Arimatsu neighborhood in southeast Nagoya celebrates the art of Shibori, old-school Japanese tie-dyeing.  Dude, it's a fabric festival! 

Arimatsu has been home to shibori masters for over 400 years.  The town was a stop along the old Tokaido-sen, one of early Edo-era postal routes, and even back in those days people picked up souvenir shibori towels and handkerchiefs.  Word spread. 

Indigo-dyed, natural white fabric is what most people think of when they think of Arimatsu Shibori, and yukata, Japanese summer festival robes, often come to mind.

If these are too subdued for your taste, no worries, there are rolls of shibori fabric in all the colors of the 'bow. 

One roll should be enough to make a yukata or kimono, about 9 meters (unless you are BiginJapan, then you probably need more).  The rolls are narrow, per standard construction techniques.   You buy the entire roll, if you don't want it all, tough. There are lots of remnants available, but they are not usually garment-size and they're often pricey, which if you do the math is not surprising, the above rolls are in the ¥30,000 ($375 US)  price range.  (Rolls on the cheap end of the spectrum run about ¥8000 and I've seen incredible rolls that are priced in the hundreds of thousands of yen, that's thousands of dollars for my fellow countrywomen.)  Ah yes, the remnants.  Remnants are often put to use in patchwork bags, pouches, hats, aprons, appliques...

So just what does one DO at the Arimatsu Shibori Matsuri?  Ye Olde Main Street is closed to traffic, so people roam freely amongst the old merchant houses and roast in the sun. 

Hats or parasols are highly recommended and readily available for purchase if you're caught without.      

Increase your chance for health, wealth and happiness by getting bonked on the head with a rake by the tall red guy.  

Check out the dashi, tall wooden floats that house the band and are pulled through the streets, by men, not trucks, during the fall festival. An early version of the tour van? 

After digging through remnants,

wander through the gardens of a merchant house.

Step inside and ogle the kimono.  

Kimono designs that are made up of thousands of tiny tie-dyed dots.  

Einstein is too! 

Some of these old merchant houses have been designated cultural properties and are protected from being torn down. 

On a regular day you can't enter most of them, but during the festival they are the place to be if you want to get shibori  

for a yukata or kimono.

Or just drool. 

You can pay one of the festival guys to haul your tired ass in a rickshaw.  

And you can even try your hand at a small shibori project. 

Eyes on the prize, ladies!  You'll never be as fast as this woman! 

If you're  interested in additional shibori details, I suggest you check the Shibori Museum website.  There is a good English page with an outline and photos of the process, the various patterns and info on some of the houses.  I'll tie up this post now and be back with part two, hopefully soon, with more on the actual process, lots of yukata, fabric and the important report on what I scored.