Also written 夜叉付子. A brown vegetable dye senryou 染料 made from the alder tree (Alnus firma), which grows throughout Japan. the cones, wood and bark are boiled to extract the dye, which is mordanted with ash lye or iron. An ash lye mordant gives a yellow-brown colour called ki-cha 黄茶, an iron mordant gives sepia kuro-cha 黒茶, and ash lye and iron together give brown cha-iro 茶色.Yashabushi has been used in Japan since the Nara period, when the cones were rubbed directly into linen to dye commoners' clothing brown. |