Changes

*''Japanese'': 紅型 ''(bingata)''

*''Japanese'': 紅型 ''(bingata)''

''Bingata'' is an Okinawan resist-dye [[Ryukyuan textiles|textile]] design technique, involving bold, colorful patterns, often involving flowers, and often on a red or yellow ground. Traditionally, ''bingata'' garments were strictly limited to the Ryukyuan royalty and aristocracy.

''Bingata'' is an Okinawan resist-dye [[Ryukyuan textiles|textile]] design technique, involving bold, colorful patterns, often involving flowers, and often on a red or yellow ground. Traditionally, ''bingata'' garments were strictly limited to the Ryukyuan royalty and [[scholar-aristocracy of Ryukyu|aristocracy]].

The process is done by using [[persimmon]] juice as a resist, blocking out areas one does not wish to dye. Dye is then applied through stencils, by hand, one section at a time, to produce the designs.<ref>Gallery labels, [[Tokyo National Museum]].</ref>

Roughly 41 ''bingata'' garments associated with the royal family survive today,<ref>Along with fifteen ''orimono'' (woven garments) and one embroidered garment.</ref> including several which have been designated [[National Treasures]]. They are defined as ''bingata'' by the dyeing technique, and include garments made from a variety of materials.

 

The Ryukyuan aristocracy did not wear ''bingata'' during major court ceremonies, but only for comparatively everyday situations, and regular court events.<ref name=bingata50>''Bingata! Only in Okinawa'', 50-51.</ref> They were worn mostly by adult women, and by young people both male & female; adult men generally only wore ''bingata'' when wearing it as a costume for [[Ryukyuan dance|dance]] or [[kumi udui|theater]].<ref>''Bingata! Only in Okinawa'', 91.</ref>

 

As in traditional Chinese/Confucian belief, the color yellow was associated (out of the five cardinal directions) with the Center, and with the Emperor - or, in the case of Ryûkyû, with the king. Yellow garments, dyed using an arsenic sulfide known today as orpiment, or other plant or mineral dyes, were thus worn only by members of the royal family.<ref>''Bingata! Only in Okinawa'', 63, 100.</ref>

Roughly 41 ''bingata'' garments associated with the royal family survive today,<ref>Along with fifteen ''orimono'' (woven garments) and one embroidered garment.</ref> including several which have been designated [[National Treasures]]. They are defined as ''bingata'' by the dyeing technique, and include garments made from a variety of materials.

[[Sumptuary regulations]] restricted the wearing of ''bingata'' were loosened at some point in the [[Edo period|early modern period]], and commoners were permitted to own and wear such garments. However, they remained extremely expensive; only the wealthiest of commoners managed to obtain ''bingata'' robes, and they generally wore them only on special occasions.<ref name=bingata50/>

 

The process is done by using [[persimmon]] juice as a resist, blocking out areas one does not wish to dye. Dye is then applied through stencils, by hand, one section at a time, to produce the designs.<ref>Gallery labels, [[Tokyo National Museum]].</ref>  

 

It is believed that ''bingata'' technique and styles first emerged due in large part to the influence of Japanese dyed fabrics which were brought into the Ryukyuan royal court as gifts from the [[Tokugawa shogunate]]. By the 19th century, if not earlier, ''bingata'' garments began to show the influence, too, of the latest Japanese commoner fashions; for example, motifs of flowered roundels appear both in Okinawa and in Kyoto, Osaka, and Edo around the same time.<ref>''Bingata! Only in Okinawa'', 73.</ref>

 

Garments with wide sleeves are known in [[Okinawan language|Okinawan]] as ''ufujin'' (lit. "big/wide garment") or ''ufusudijin'' (lit. "big/wide sleeved garment").<ref>''Bingata! Only in Okinawa'', 72.</ref>

==References==

==References==

*Gallery labels, Naha City Museum of History, August 2013.

*Gallery labels, Naha City Museum of History, August 2013.

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