When choosing a yukata \u2014 a lightweight cotton kimono \u2014 or a tenugui, a traditional rectangular cotton cloth, you may come across the term “ch\u016bsen.” Even once you learn it is “a kind of stencil dyeing,” it can be hard to picture exactly how the cloth is dyed, or what sets it apart from printing and from other stencil methods.<\/p>\n
This article sets out, step by step, what ch\u016bsen is, how the process brings colour to both sides of yukata and tenugui, and how it differs from kata-y\u016bzen (stencil y\u016bzen) and Tokyo some-komon (fine-stencil dyeing). It also covers what to look at in a ch\u016bsen product, and what to check when using the technique for product development or store textiles.<\/p>\n
Ch\u016bsen is a stencil-resist dyeing technique in which a pattern is formed with a paper stencil and resist paste, dye is poured onto folded layers of cloth and drawn through by suction, and the cloth is then turned over so it is dyed from both the front and the reverse.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
What defines ch\u016bsen is not only that the dye is poured from above. Accurate stencilling, the folding of the cloth, the paste barrier that channels the dye, suction from below, and dyeing after the cloth is turned over all work together to produce minimal difference in colour between the two sides.<\/p>\n
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