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Mercurialis leiocarpa | |
Common Names: Yama ai, Mountain Indigo | |
Geographical Distribution: East Asia - Central and South Japan | |
Habitat: Low mountain woodland. This plant will grow in sandy, loamy and clay soils; it is not pH sensitive and will grow in acid, neutral and basic (alkaline) soils. Mercurialis leiocarpa is found in light woodland and requires moist conditions to thrive. | |
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Japan: Low Mountain Habitat | |
Description: Perennial growing to 10cm. A blue dye is obtained from the leaves of this plant. | |
Notes on Use: This plant is an important precursor to the use of Indigo in Japan. Indigo (Ai) is the term applied to the plants that contain the indigo dye. Yama ai or Mountain Indigo does not properly belong to this group because the blue dye it contains is not indigo. This dye plant was known in Japan since ancient times, yama ai was used to colour the sacred enthronement robes of the Emperor. This establishes the cultural association of blue with favourable status. | |
The traditional method for the use of Mountain Indigo is to rub fresh leaves directly onto the fabric. This is a poor technique for dying, the dye remains on the fibres in a superficial layer that can be easily worn or washed away. Mountain Indigo was an important dye plant as late as the Nara period (8th century), use finally stopped in the Edo period (17th century). | |
Mountain Indigo was superseded as a source of blue dye when Dyer's Knotweed was introduced to Japan from China some time in the 5th or 6th century. The early method of working this source of true indigo is directly related to the fresh leaf technique of the native yama ai process. | |
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