Dyeing with the earth: textiles, tradition, & sustainability in contemporary Japan

Abstract

"Dyeing with the Earth addresses small-scale traditional craft environments and their connections to contemporary sustainability developments through a case study of natural textile dyeing on Amami Ōshima, a biodiverse island in southern Japan. Contrasting traditional practices with profit-driven sustainability policies of global corporations, Charlotte Linton explores the complex and often contradictory intertwining of preservation practices, resource extraction, and access to land that define the craftspeoples' relationships with the natural environment. Using visual, design and apprenticeship methodologies, the study follows the work of a textiles workshop engaged in the production of yarn for the Ōshima tsumugi kimono cloth industry, dyed using the indigenous dorozome (mud-dyeing) technique. Dyeing with the Earth offers readers a new approach to global sustainability rhetoric by zooming in on sustaining processes at a local level. By examining a single link in the commodity supply chain, Linton shows how grassroots producers of such commodities sustain their communities socially, economically, and environmentally"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents

The Mud Dyers of Amami Ōshima -- The Alchemy of Producing Color -- "Mottainai!" What a Waste! -- The Mejiro Bird -- "The Industrious Way of Doing Things" -- Dyeing with the Earth