Madder: Ukiyo-e colorant

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.

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