Cranes, Dragons, and Teddy Bears is a display of Japanese Children’s Kimono from the collection of Marita and David Paly which was displayed at the Portland Art Museum. According to the display:
“In Japan, until the mid-twentieth century, the kimono was the universal garment. While children often wore hand-me-downs from their elders, for special occasions the preference was for garments with auspicious motifs, such as cranes and dragons—symbols of long life.”
Kasuri describes a fabric that has been woven with fibers dyed to create patterns and images in the fabric.
According to the display:
“The blue is from indigo, a dye that only came into widespread use in Japan in the mid-eighteenth century. The soft brown color is from shikon, or purple gromwell, a plant that has been cultivated in Japan since the eighth century as a dye and medicine.”
According to the display:
“The silk for a kimono is first woven into a temporary fabric as a way to create the minute patterns. The garment is then stained some thirty times with the pulp of a local plum tree, giving it a berry color, before being buried in iron-rich mud. The mud reacts with the tannins in the tree dye to create the dark brown color; it also gives the silk a special softness and sheen.”
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