Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
priate quality and thickness. Book production was considerable, while paper required for
the home had to be frequently renewed, and thus demand was constant.
Printing was normally from wooden blocks, one block to a page, carved from a hand-
written original; colored prints had one block for each color. Printing was by hand, using
only brushes and pads, with no machinery for inking. Writing was done with a brush, of
which there were many sizes according to the size of the writing to be done; they are made
of animal hair set into a bamboo tube. The ink is compounded from lamp-black and glue,
kneaded and worked into sticks. These are used with an ink-stone, of fine-grained slate or
the like, which has a flat surface with a sunken end into which water is put. Some of the
water is transferred to the flat part by dipping the ink-block in it, and the ink for writing is
produced by rubbing the block and water on the stone, from which it is taken by the brush.
The making of high quality ink and stone took a great deal of skill and experience.
The weaving of cloth was widespread in country districts as an occupation for the wo-
menfolk on a farm, and a large proportion of the hemp and cotton weaving, and the plainer
sort of silk weaving, was done in this way. The material was produced in standard rolls,
measuringabouttwofeetby20yards,eachofwhichwasenoughtomakeone
kimono.
The
processofmakingupthematerialrequiredacertainamountofskill,toaccommodateitap-
proximatelytothesizeofthewearer,butinviewofthefactthatthegarmenthasnobuttons
or other fastening, but is held together by the girdle, while the woman's
kimono
is adjusted
by a larger or smaller tuck under the wide girdle, the services of a professional dressmaker
were not needed by a normal household, especially as the stitching is not the fine stitching
of the West, but is more like tacking. Washing a
kimono
involved taking it to pieces, wash-
ing and starching them separately, on frames, and reassembling, changing round the pieces
to distribute wear.
Silk cloth was often highly decorative. It could have various textures and damask ef-
fects, and also patterns derived from the use of differently colored thread, worked in at the
timeofweaving.Itcouldhavepatternsdyedinafterweaving,eitherbyaprocesssimilarto
painting, whereby colors were brushed on to the fabric, or by knot-dyeing, in which small
areas of the cloth were drawn up into bunches before the whole was immersed in the dye;
when the bunches were undone, there was left a small area in the original color. Finally,
designs could be embroidered on the fabric to produce a brocade.
Whereas various regions of Japan could produce patterned weaving, complicated dye-
ingandembroiderywasdoneintowns,themostcelebratedareabeingNishijin,adistrictin
the northwest of Kyoto, with a long history of work for the court, and later for the Shogun.
TheisolationofJapanuntilthemiddleofthenineteenthcenturypreserved,untilaperi-
od when Europe and America were well into the era of mass production, a tradition of
handicraft which Europe had known some centuries earlier but had now nearly forgotten.
While in their own specialties the best craftsmen were probably not inferior to those of
