This hand towel is dyed with a gradual gradation using the hand-dyed dyeing technique called "Chū-sen." A characteristic of Chusen dyeing is that each piece is dyed subtly differently. The bleached fabric is made of "Tokuoka", a fine-count fabric with a high weave density. It has a moderate firmness and a smooth texture.
The ends are left unfinished so they may fray and look like fringes at first, but this will gradually subside. If this bothers you, please trim them with scissors as needed.
About Chusen This is a dyeing technique that was created in Osaka around 1887. It is a type of paste-applied dyeing method in which a stencil is used to apply a dye-resistant paste. The dye-resistant paste is applied to each stencil on the Japanese-bleached fabric, and the fabric is folded over and the dye is poured in all at once, so the fabric is dyed evenly on both sides. The top fabric is divided into banks called dams into which the dye is poured, so the boundaries become ambiguous as the dye runs through to the bottom, creating a soft impression. It is more suitable for mass production than the classical method, but since there are many steps that require the artisan's sense, it is difficult to mechanize, and the method is still passed down by hand to this day.
