Art of High-End Kimono Is Imperiled
高級和服手藝恐將失傳
By Martin Fackler

AMAMI OSHIMA, Japan — Kazuhiko Kanai uses the traditional method to dye the elegant kimonos for which this small, semitropical island is renowned: he carries a bundle of pure white silk to a nearby rice paddy and hurls it into the mud.
金井一人用傳統方法為高雅的和服染色，這個亞熱帶小島（奄美大島）以此聞名：他拿著一捆純白色絲料到附近的稻田，把絲料丟進泥裡。

Mr. Kanai is one of the last practitioners of “dorozome,” or “mud-dyeing,” which uses the island’s iron-rich soil to turn silk the darkest chocolate. This is one step in a process that can take a year to produce a kimono with the glossiest silk and most intricately woven designs in all Japan. Amami Oshima’s kimonos once fetched more than $10,000 each.
金井是「泥染法」碩果僅存的職人之一，此法使用島上富含鐵質的泥土，把絲染成最暗的巧克力色。這是用日本最有光澤的絲和織工最精細的圖案，可能花費一年才能製成一件和服的過程的一個步驟。奄美大島的和服曾經一套賣到一萬美元以上。

But Japan’s long economic squeeze have led to plummeting demand. Only 500 people on an island of 73,000 remain employed full-time in kimono production, and many of them are in their 70s or 80s.
但日本長期的經濟緊縮導致需求一路下滑。在這個人口7萬3000人的島上，只有500人仍是製作和服的全職員工，其中許多人已七、八十歲。

That’s down from 20,000 people a generation ago, according to the Authentic Amami Oshima Tsumugi Association, the island’s union of kimono producers.
根據島上的和服生產者工會「正牌奄美大島紬聯合會」的說法，一個世代（30年）前從事和服製作的全職員工多達兩萬人。

From 284,278 kimonos during the height of the postwar boom in 1972, the island’s production of kimono silk has plunged to enough for just 5,340 kimonos last year.
島上為製作和服而生產的絲，從1972年戰後全盛高峰期可供製作28萬4278套和服，下滑到去年只可供製作5340套。

Amami Oshima has also been hurt by a complex web of wholesalers, dealers and specialized retailers who distribute and sell the island’s kimonos. This antiquated system keeps the kimonos prohibitively expensive while driving down wages.
奄美大島也受到由批發商、交易商和專業零售商組成的複雜銷售網的傷害，他們批發和銷售島上的和服。這個老舊的系統把和服的價格抬高到令人望而生畏的地步，同時壓低了薪資。

Worse, the brunt of what price cuts have been made inevitably falls on the dyers and weavers. As a result, while a new Oshima kimono can still cost $3,000 to $6,000 in Tokyo, weavers say they are lucky to get more than $400 for a month’s exacting work.
更糟的是，降價的大部分損失無可避免地落在染色工和織工的身上。因此，雖然在東京一套奄美大島的和服仍然要價3000到6000美元，織工們卻說，他們札札實實做上一個月，幸運的話，也只能拿到400多美元。

Many fret that there will soon be too few islanders left with the skills to sustain each of the 30 separate steps needed to produce one of the kimonos.
製作一套和服需經過30種不同的工序，許多人擔心，島上具有這些工序所需技藝的人才，很快就會所剩無幾。

“If we lose one link in the chain, we lose our ability to make kimonos,” said Mr. Kanai, 56, who owns a dirt-floored wooden workshop where silk is dyed in bubbling iron caldrons and then hung from the ceiling to dry. “If we cannot make kimonos any more, what will be left here?”
56歲的金井說：「我們只要失去整個鎖鏈的一個環節，我們就失去了製作和服的能力。」他擁有一間泥土地的木造工作室，絲料在冒著泡泡的大鐵鍋裡染色，再掛到天花板上晾乾。「如果我們不再能製作和服，這裡還剩下什麼？」

Mr. Kanai says the mud-dyeing process alone takes more than a month, as the silk is first colored a burgundy hue with natural dye made from the pulp of a local plum tree. Getting the right shade of red requires repeating the cycle of staining and drying the silk 30 times, he said. Only then is the silk ready to be immersed in the black mud, whose iron reacts with tannins in the tree dye.
金井說，單是泥染過程就需要一個多月，絲料先用當地李子樹果肉做成的天然染料染成酒紅色。他說，為了定色，需要一再重複把絲料染色和晾乾30次。這時候絲料才可以浸在黑泥中，泥中的鐵質與樹染料中的單寧會產生反應。

Even before the silk arrives at Mr. Kanai’s workshop, it is first woven into a temporary fabric. After this fabric has been mud-dyed, it is unraveled back into its original silk threads. Each colored thread now has thousands of tiny white stripes where it overlapped with another thread.
甚至在絲料送到金井的工作室之前，已先織成一塊暫時的布料。這塊布料經過泥染之後，再拆解成原來的絲線。現在每一條染過色的絲線都有成千上萬的白色小條紋，是因為與另一條絲線交疊而形成。

As the threads are rewoven into new fabric by island women, they slowly reveal perfectly formed patterns, ranging from starkly minimalist shapes to elaborate scenes of bamboo groves and flying storks.
島上的婦女把絲線重新織成新布料時，絲線呈現完美排列的花色，從全然極簡的圖案到細致的竹林景色和正在飛翔的鸛都有。

“The weaver has a tremendous responsibility,” said Mifuko Iwasaki, 70, who has been teaching young islanders how to weave for 35 years. “If we make a mistake, we undo all the hard work of those who spent so much time preparing this thread.”
70歲的岩崎御深說：「織工的責任重大，如果我們犯了一個錯，我們就毀了之前花那麼多時間準備絲線的人的所有辛苦工作。」她過去35年間一直在教導島上的年輕人如何織絲料。

Mr. Kanai’s son, Yukihito, uses the centuries-old dyeing techniques to color new types of items, including T-shirts, jeans and even guitar bodies. He is experimenting with selling these over the Internet.
金井的兒子行仁使用已有幾世紀歷史的染色技術去染新類型的物件，包括T恤、牛仔褲，甚至吉他的主體。他正在實驗透過網路銷售這些物件。

“We need to become more like artisans in Europe or artists in New York,” said the younger Mr. Kanai, 35. “Even traditions have to evolve.”
35歲的小今井說：「我們必須變得更像歐洲的工匠或是紐約的藝術家。即便是傳統也必須進化。」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/10/world/old-ways-prove-hard-to-shed-even-as-crisis-hits-kimono-trade.html

2015-03-03聯合報/G5版/UNITED DAILY NEWS 田思怡譯 原文參見紐時週報十一版右