Talking to The Indigo Vat

During 2023, 2024 and 2025, I have been researching different ways of dyeing with indigo. I am deeply interested in its craft and how connected it is to the Land. I have been working with communities in Finland, Japan, India and Thailand learning more about indigo vats. Each place has its know specific indigo plants, ingredients, and ways of taking care of the vat.

This research continues to connect communities of indigo dyers and further investigate the bacterial communities inside the vat as well as the different indigo plant species specifically in Japan. This project revolves around interspecies communication and stories between humans and the microorganisms inside the vat connecting us to the Land. 

The aim of this research is to document and reimagine Japanese indigo dyeing as a sustainable interspecies collaboration—preserving traditional knowledge while contributing new insights to the fields of craft, art, biology, and anthropology.

   

Indigo colour originates from the leaves of different species of indigo plants which are specific to certain regions and climates. Indigo blue was traditionally the first blue found in nature and one of the oldest natural dyes still practised today. The quality of the dye, its medicinal properties, and the diversity of techniques makes it very unique.

During my time researching indigo I followed its processes from the seeds, to planting, preparing the paste or sukumo, to dyeing.


   


As part of my ongoing research and collaboration with Professor Niida Atsushi and Ishio Kaito, I am doing the 16s rRNA sequencing of samples from the sukumo vat I created at BioClub Tokyo. I wish to continue sampling the DNA of different vats around Japan.

    


In this ongoing research I am investigating: 
- different species of indigo plants in the world

- indigo vat fermentation 
- different ingredients and ways of creating and indigo vat 
- craft techniques of indigo dyeing 
- the connection between indigo cycles and the Land 
- indigo vat bacterias and microbes 


Textile samples from different locations and indigo dyeing communities: Chiba in Japan (sukumo vat), Chiang Dao in Thailand (indigo paste vat), Tokushima in Japan (sukumo vat), BioClub Tokyo in Japan (sukumo vat), Okinawa Islands in the south of Japan (indigo paste vat), Ashikaga in Japan (sukumo vat) and Helsinki in Finland (fructose vat with woad indigo plant). 


     

        

 
  
  
Documentation picture of the indigo fermented vat at BioClub Tokyo, field work on Okinawa Islands and in Thailand.