Difference between revisions of "Category:Madder: Ukiyo-e colorant"

Description

For ukiyo-e woodblock prints, Rubia tinctorum and/or Rubia akane was the primary red colorant used consistently for all of the time periods and printing methods.

Madder (akane): A natural red dye extracted from the roots of any of several species of the genus Rubia. The most commonly used plants include: Rubia tinctorum L., native to the Middle East and eastern Mediterranean, but cultivated across Europe and introduced into the Far East, America, and Africa; Rubia cordifolia L., native to India and southeast Asia, but very widespread; and Rubia akane Nagai, found in Japan and also China, Korea and Taiwan. Madder has been used as a colorant for dyeing textiles since ancient times in India, Persia, and Egypt.

In the Japanese prints, red regions containing madder were usually seen as brightly fluorescent during the preliminary examination of the prints with a hand-held UV light. Thus, it was no surprise that the EEM fluorescence technique provided a unique and definitive pattern for madder, but it was fortunate for our study, that the madder pattern was distinctively different than the EEM pattern for safflower

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  Madder plant Rubia tinctorum L.

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  Madder root

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  Dye mixtures from madder root printed on paper

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  Fabrics dyed with madder

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  Overlay of madder emission curves

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  Overlay of madder excitation curves

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  EEM plot for madder

Examples