Liquid dye, Kyo Yūzen

Kata-yūzen (stencil yūzen) is of two kinds: suri yūzen, where dye is applied with a special brush, and utsushi yūzen, where the liquid dye is mixed with paste-resist made from glutinous rice and rice bran, using a stick of lime. The outward color of the paste differs considerably from the color it produces, so the precise composition of the mixture is decided after repeated trials. After the design is applied to the fabric using colored paste-resist (iro nori) and stencils, the cloth is first steamed to fix the dye and then rinsed in water to remove the paste-resist. Nowadays specialists who make paste-resist have all but disappeared, and not only stencil dyers but all those connected with the production of hand-drawn yūzen, minutely patterned Edo komon, Okinawan bingata, and other types of traditional resist-dyed cloth feel a mounting sense of crisis.