The Adaptive and Responsive Practice of Making Black Dyes: A Sensory Ethnography of Mud-Dyeing Practices in Amami Ōshima, Southern Japan

In this article, I examine the craft of mud-dyeing in Amami Ōshima, Southern Japan. I focus on the dyeing factory Kanai Kougei, where I use sensory ethnography and practice-led methodologies during a two-month apprenticeship to learn their techniques. Exploring the practice and knowledge of mud-dyeing in Amami provides an opportunity to understand the human–environment relationships involved in creating a specific color for textiles. This view encourages seeing color production as a situated practice rather than an isolated one. The study adopts a territorial approach to design and materials, in which environments and practitioners engage in a dynamic and responsive relationship. It employs Ingold and Hallam’s concept of improvization as a framework for analysis, viewing making practices as open to the environment, situated, generative, and interconnected. This article argues that producing black fibers through dorozome builds a relationship with the territory through improvizational practice, in which the dyeing process involves ongoing adjustments that require attentiveness and openness to the environment that the dyers inhabit and where the dyestuffs grow. Examining how Amami creates color reveals ways to understand biocolorants in textiles from a territorial perspective, emphasizing the dynamics of materials and organisms, and the relationships between dyers and their environment.