komon　小紋

KEY WORD :　art history / crafts

Lit. small pattern. A small-scale repeated pattern usually in a single color against a colored ground. Originally used primarily in dyeing leather and bast fibers, and later on silk, komon are created by applying a rice-paste resist liquid through a paper stencil, then dyeing the cloth. The motif sizes vary from pin-point dots to real-size depictions of blossoms. Late Muromachi paintings show that komon studios flourished by that time, with Shirako 白子 in Ise 伊勢, and Jike 寺家 in Suzuka 鈴鹿 producing komon stencils. Later Edo became a center of production, producing the same 鮫 (sharkskin) komon, used for the samurais 侍 ceremonial kamishimo 裃 garment. Early Edo period komon on silk often feature a simple pattern of three to seven dots in white reserve on blue. Komon designs were also used for informal and semiformal women's kimono 着物. The fabric was so popular in the Tokugawa capital that it was called edo komon 江戸小紋.

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