Brightly Dyed Festival Fabric Gets Wintry Airing

The Yomiuri Shimbun

16:10 JST, February 2, 2023

Workers air colorfully dyed cloth in a snow-covered landscape in Takayama, Gifu Prefecture. This process, called kanzarashi (exposure to cold), is essential for making the traditional Hidazome dyed fabric needed for festival costumes used in the prefecture’s Hida district. Airing the dyed cloth under the sun in cold weather improves color clarity and retention. At Yuhara Senko, a dyeing company in the city, the workers used bamboo frames to draw taut long bolts of the dyed fabric depicting phoenixes, dragons and other patterns.