Arimatsu, Japan

Steel Needle for Yokobiki Kanoko Shibori

$110.00

Traditional Yokobiki-Kanoko tool for Arimatsu artisans. A special sharp hooked steel needle is embedded (with pine resin) at the end of the metal arm. The arm can be attached to the Shibori Stand (SFS shop item) or make a wooden stand stabilized with a base and a large C-Clamp on a table. If and when the steel hooked needle is broken you can send it back to SFS, we have resin and a spare needle to replace it. Artisans use the yokobiki binding thread wound on a yokobiki wodden bobbin to make small bound-resist knots.

Kanoko 鹿の子 lietraly means a baby deer, the pattern was named after the dappled coat of a fawn by the ladies of Imperial Court during the Heian Period (794 to 1185 AD). Kyoto kanoko shibori artisans developed skills to pinch a bit of silk cloth with finger tips (nails) and hand bind it with raw (sericin) silk filament. The textured small dots in grids became very popular. Eventually, the expensive kanoko shibori silk was reserved for privileged classes and its use was controlled by the Shogunate Government's sumptuary law passed several times during the Edo Period (1603 and 1867 AD). In Arimatsu, the artisans developed a tool to aid in tying and knotting bits of cloth. This method is easier to master and quicker to execute, hence less expensive Yokobiki kanoko became popular among the common folk.

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