Her Haughtynesses Decree

Sunday, March 27, 2022

茶屋辻 | Chayatsuji | Waterside Indigo | Patterns #12T

Chayatsuji is a pattern which traditionally depicted waterside scenes in summer kimono which are dyed in indigo and complemented by orange-yellows. The term Chaya, refers to Chaya-zome (Chaya dyed) after its origins from the Chaya family (active circa 1575) member Chaya Munekiyo (1593-1627).[4][5] It is guesstimated that this process of going from a dye to design process, helped to inspire Miyazaki Yuzen (1654-1736) in the creation of his fan paintings on Kosode.[1]

Chaya-zome dye with Indigo designs (c1986, CC4.0) Wikimedia Commons 

The Chaya family were an influential Daimyo family in the late Sengoku Jidai (1568-1600).[5] During the early Sengoku Jidai, they adopted a wandering Ronin (  浪人 | clan-less warrior ) from the Nakajima family whom they designated as Chaya Shirojiro ( しろじろきよのぶ | 1545-1596 ) I. Shirojiro I became a Komin, setting up a shop in Kyoto selling fabric to his wealthy friends who introduced him to more Komin pursuits like lacquerware and making tea ceremony paraphenalia.[4] During this time, he befriended people like Honnami Koetsu ( 本阿弥 光悦 | 1558-1637)[4] and Matsudaira Hirotada ( 松平 広忠 |1526-1549).[6] This proved useful later when Matsudaira's son, Tokugawa Ieyasu ( (徳川家康 | 1543-1616) needed a squire for which Shirojiro I, sent Shirjiro II to fill the job vacancy.[6]

In this way, Shirojiro I became very wealthy very quickly, becoming what is known as a Fudai ( 譜代 | Insider of the Tokugawa circle ) samurai by 1573 making all of Ieyasu's clothes and being a spy for the Tokugawa family. They even went to war together! Shirojiro I first acquired a Shuinjo ( 朱印船 | Foreign Traders Licence ) during Hideyoshi's rule by the 1580s, trading silks with South Vietnam. This carried on until his death, when his son Kiyotada (1584-1603) took over the family workshop and fought at the battle of Sekigahara (1600). In 1603, the business was taken over by Kiyotsugu (1584-1622) who began a silk trade monopoly and overseeing the Nagasaki trade port to prevent Christianisation in Japan. In 1612 the Chaya workshop was issued a Shuinjo for Vietnam again resuming their monopoly officially in the new Tokugawa administration.[6]

During this golden period for the Chaya business, Kiyotsugu's successors Kagayoshi and Munekiyo (active 1630-1639) opened two new branches under the silk monopoly income. However, it was during this time that the Bakufu established Sakoku trade policies to enforce the ban on foreign elements gaining ground with the Heimin, plummeting Chaya's profit margins.[6] During this decade (1630-1640), the Komin Chaya Munekiyo (1593-1627) invented the Chaya-zome technique of using indigo dyes to decorate Katabira by the second half of the 1630s.[4] 

It is likely these designs made use of easily accessed indigo in light of the rising cost of importing other fabrics and dyestuffs by 1635. It is perhaps likely influenced by the avant garde aesthetic world of the Kyoto elites and Komin who resided there at the time, who sought out 'Wamono' in their work to get around the new Sumptuary Laws and used new techniques like direct painting which Machi-Eshi in their untraditional splendour were apt to take up to make sales. It was this 'Shari' ( Witty design ) environment forged by Sengoku Jidai Daimyo excess from the 1590s - 1610s and patriotic Machi-Shu Wamono Yamato-E Shari culture from 1620-1660 which came before the Ukiyo world of the Kambun era.[4][7] This shift from Daimyou to Chonin patronage may be the catalyst for the switch to indigo designs, eventually being the source of fame for the Chaya wholesaler, who became popular with the masses for their Chaya-zome Katabira by 1640.

The origins of the Chaya-tsuji motif comes from the Kambun era (1661-1673) when the design was first printed on Hemp Katabira (帷子) Kimono. Katabira being the predeccessor of Hitoe Kimono and Yukata. The first text appearance of the motif is in the On-Hiinakata (first Kosode pattern book; 1667) which uses the dye Chaya-zome as a ground colour for the Kosode. It is thought the Chaya wholesale store made popular Kosode with waterside motifs using indigo dye, which is how the Chayatsuji motif came to be born at least by the beginning of the Enpo period (1673-1681), during which time this referred to a graduated dye pattern of indigo and light oranges or yellow-greens worn by women.[1][4] By the Genroku period (1688-1704) a technique called Noribosen (two sided resist paste stencil) was created. After this time the stencil depicted delicate patterns, often related to water or fans, and Chayatsuji was born.[1] 

With the introduction and popularity of Yuzen-zome, the fad of Chaya-zome and Chayatsuji waned as Yuzen designs took over by 1705.[1] These were changes driven by the wealthier Chonin classes though as: 

when the Sankin Kotai was enacted [...] from 1635 [this lead to] the rise of the new Chonin class. This changed [...] by 1685 in reaction from the Bakufu by their growing rich people disgust of the merchant classes spending said money. This came in the form of the sumptuary laws, and saw the rise of more covert expenditure, and eventually this meant the start of hierarchical fashion laws (and their cultural reaction of 'Iki') [...] in a bid to curb the outragerous spending habits of Osaka merchants and Edo Chonin in the creation of GKTC (1688-1704).[2]
During this bout of sumptuary laws, one of these such initiatives to keep the Bakufu afloat and I quote 'Yoshimune found it necessary to shelve certain Confucian principles that were hampering his reform process.'[3] In other words, he threw out centuries old principles because he was cash strapped, but is still ordering his subjects to go without and lecturing them on their spending habits. Some things never do change do they? Either way, Yoshimune enacted the Kyoho reforms ( 享保の改革 |1736 sumptuary and rice-as-money restructuring reforms), and Chaya-zome Kosode, which was an expensive Kosode to own and have made, were dropped by the Chonin inline with more Iki styles. Samurai ladies though had other ideas and began wearing them, and down the years the patterns became smaller and smaller until it was accepted by the cultural elites as a motif rather than a whole design by 1711.[1] 

By 1850, the design was considered so bourgeois that it was part of the domestic court dress of Edo castle for the ladies in waiting to wear. It was at this point, that the motif became fixed as it is known today. Today the pattern is worn mostly on Houmongi (formalwear Kimono) and Tomesode (black formalwear Kimono).[1]

Bibliography

[1] https://www.japanese-wiki-corpus.org/culture/Chayatsuji.html 

[2] See A man of Yoshiwara in Bijin #12

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ky%C5%8Dh%C5%8D_Reforms#Purpose_of_the_reforms

[4] Japanese Art, Aesthetics, and a European Discourse: Unraveling Sharawadgi, Wybe Kuitert, 2014, No.27, p.86, Japan Review

[5] Japan Encyclopedia, Louis Frederic, 2002, p.109

[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaya_Shir%C5%8Djir%C5%8D

[7] See The Town Painter in Bijin #15

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