Industrial Aesthetics of Return to Nature" in LOHAS Dyeing (around 2007)

Industrial Aesthetics of Return to Nature" in LOHAS Dyeing (around 2007)

In the mid-2000s, the term "LOHAS" became widespread in Japan, and a lifestyle that balances the environment and health was the focus of much attention. LOHAS dyeing," developed by Tsuyakin Kogyo of Ichinomiya City, Aichi Prefecture, is a technology for dyeing textiles with natural dyes extracted from food waste, and has a recycling system that reuses waste as fuel. By using familiar by-products such as soybean meal and chestnuts as raw materials, natural colors are reproduced without relying on chemical dyes. This technology has opened a new path for the Japanese dyeing industry, which had been in decline due to inexpensive foreign products. It is unique in that it is not merely an ecological technology, but has the ideological aspect of "reconstructing the aesthetics of manufacturing," and combines the "mottainai" spirit of the Edo period with modern design thinking. The attempt by Tsuyakin Kogyo to position ecology not as something inorganic but as a "color that brings bac
k human sensibilities" was a pioneering effort that would later lead to sustainable fashion and regional resource design.