A clear and refreshing autumn day.
In the crisp air and gentle sunlight, autumn work is moving steadily forward at Hitotsuya（ひとつ屋）.
We dry Japanese indigo seeds and flax, sort green cotton and the husks of brown cotton bolls, and slowly dry precipitated indigo into solid cakes. Each task is part of preparing for winter and carrying this year’s harvest into the next stage of work.
On our Japanese-language page Hitotsuya Textile Farm and Satoyama, we introduce the plants we grow for natural dyeing, yarn making and weaving.
These quiet hours of working with the seasons are part of a life rooted in farming. Here is a small glimpse of an ordinary autumn day.
A perfect autumn day for drying the harvest
As the old Japanese saying goes, autumn brings high skies and well-fed horses.
Today the sky is clear, the air is dry and the sunlight is soft. It is an ideal day for drying what we have gathered, and the bright blue sky makes the garden work move along almost effortlessly.
▼ A clear autumn sky above trees beginning to change colour
In autumn, we continue caring for the materials grown through spring and summer for dyeing, spinning and weaving.
Drying indigo seeds for next year
▼ Indigo seeds drying in the sun for next year’s cultivation
These are the Japanese indigo seeds harvested this year and spread out to dry in the sun.
Each tiny seed will carry the life of the plants into the next season.
The annual sequence from sowing and raising seedlings to planting, harvesting and saving seed is described in our Japanese-language article How to grow Japanese indigo: sowing, seedlings, planting and harvesting.
The Tokushima Prefectural Government also introduces indigo cultivation, harvesting and leaf drying on its official Japanese-language page About Indigo.
Drying flax stems for fibre
▼ Flax stems drying before the fibre is prepared for yarn
This is flax harvested during the year.
After the stems have dried, the fibre is extracted, made into yarn and woven as linen.
The flax that once moved in the field breeze will pass through human hands and eventually return to daily life as a light cloth.
Sorting green cotton and brown cotton boll husks
▼ Green cotton in the left tray and brown cotton boll husks in the right
The left tray holds green cotton, while the right holds the empty husks of brown cotton bolls.
After the seeds are removed, the green cotton will be spun on our Garabo spinning machine, which works on a principle similar to hand spinning, and then woven into cloth.
The brown cotton boll husks are kept and used as a natural dye.
The cotton becomes yarn, and the husks become colour. Nothing received from nature is wasted; each material is carried into another form.
Drying precipitated indigo into solid cakes
▼ Solid indigo cakes drying after water has been removed from the precipitated indigo
Here, precipitated indigo is being drained and dried into solid indigo cakes.
At Hitotsuya, we call the wet material precipitated indigo, the thicker paste-like state indigo paste, and the further dried solid form an indigo cake.
Growing the plants, extracting their blue pigment and slowly preparing it for storage connects the field directly to the dye workshop.
The process is explained in our Japanese-language article How to make precipitated indigo, indigo paste and dried indigo cakes.
An autumn visitor
▼ A stink bug active in the autumn sunlight
At this time of year, the stink bugs are full of energy too.
They can certainly be troublesome, but they are also living through the same autumn days alongside us.
Everything leads into the next season
Working in the autumn sunlight brings a quiet feeling of being part of the surrounding landscape.
The indigo seeds return to next year’s field. The flax and green cotton become yarn and cloth. The boll husks become dye, and the precipitated indigo becomes solid cakes.
When one task ends, the next begins.
Everything continues into the season ahead. It was a clear autumn day that made that connection easy to feel.