Miyazaki Yūzen


Miyazaki Yūzen , also known as Miyazaki Yūzensai or Yūzenzai, was a Japanese fan painter who perfected the yūzen fabric dying technique.

Biography

Miyazaki was born in Kyoto in 1654. He was originally a fan painter, but is also known for his work with kosode kimonos. Miyazaki painted his most popular fan designs on kimono, and they were wildly popular. He used rice paste to resist-dye the cloth in a method that he named yūzen-zome. It later became known as simply yūzen. This technique made it easier for Miyazaki to paint his designs directly on the kimonos, making them more expressive.
His designs were so popular that they were published as a book called the Yuzen-hiinagata in 1688.