Gathering materials for plant dyeing: Collecting chestnut burrs

The season for chestnut dyeing has arrived again this year.

We receive the autumn harvest and usually do plant dyeing from October to November.

The main attractions this year are chestnut burrs and marigold flowers.

We need about a truckload of chestnut burrs to dye the clothes we make.

I found a huge number of chestnut burrs, so I went to the site.

This place is home to some of the largest and most beautiful chestnuts in Itoshiro, and the landowner collects them in one place, making it very easy to pick up, which was a great help.

It was a beautiful autumn day and it felt so good! I was happy to be able to work outside like this. It was a rare sunny day before winter.

Perhaps because the graves of their ancestors are right next to them, the chestnut burrs are not left lying around after they fall, but are instead cared for in a beautiful manner, which I feel is a testament to the high level of aesthetic sense of the people of Itoshiro. (We should all learn from them!)

Since we were able to collect them all at once, the first round of picking up burrs took about an hour. (If it wasn't, it would take about half a day!)

The color of these burrs is dyed by pouring iron over them. This is a product dyed with burrs . I like the elegant gray color because it is very beautiful.

If we dye it now, we will let it sit for about six months and then release it between spring and autumn.

Dyeing is a process that exists alongside the workings of nature. I love collecting burrs, boiling them, dyeing them, and appreciating the dyed colors.

We do everything from gathering materials to dyeing ourselves, and this is one of the joys of living in this area.