Wednesday, December 5, 2018

German Beer, Aniline, BASF, and Japanese Beauties

If you are reading this you are hopefully intrigued, and if you have gotten this far, maybe you'll read a bit further. (inspired by Shawshank Redemption)

It's no secret that I am enamored by Japanese beauties when they are in the form of 1960s bromides attached to yukata fabric bolts.  In fact, I've become a avid collector of these cards and the cloth they adorn.  This past month, I picked up a very intriguing yukata bolt which ties 1800s German Beer Making, post-war Germany (with ties to Nazi Germany), post-war Japan, and the Japanese entertainment industry together.  Intrigued? I hope so.  Here is the quick "6 Degrees of Separation" of this story.  In the 1800s, the Europeans, especially the Germans, were brilliant beer brewers and chemists.  Friedrich Engelhorn was the son of a beer brewer in the German town of Mannheim.  His early life experiences gave him the knack for metallurgy, business, and the gas industry.  Eventually, while making and bottling gas to sell to pubs for lighting (of course), he also produced tons (literally) of coal tar that he didn't know what to do with.  Along comes William Perkin from England who discovers that you can make brilliantly colored synthetic dies by chemically processing coal tar to get aniline.   Real dies are expensive, synthetic dies not so much, so Friedrich establishes the well-known company Badische Anilin Soda Fabrik (BASF) to produce synthetic dies from all his excess coal tar.  Success gets BASF in trouble though. After BASF merges with 5 other companies in the 1920s to form IG Farben, IG Farben goes on to produce Zyklon B for the Nazi Party which is used in gas chambers for the extreme mass-murder atrocities.  The allies win, IG Farben is dissolved, but BASF remains to produce peaceful chemicals for the European Economy.  Enter post-war Japan.  In the 1960s, both Germany and Japan were enjoying an economic boom.  BASF decides to open up a factory in Japan.  And Japan's boom spreads to the textile industry, especially kimono and yukata.  A need for a synthetic indigo die emerges to color the cotton fabric for the kimono and yukata.  BASF is there to meet the demand and a partnership is born.  The entertainment industry was also thriving in Japan during the 1960s so they helped promote and sell these brilliantly covered fabrics.  Here is how I imagine the story going......the Japanese Women's Club Magazine (A very popular woman's magazine at the time) contacts the Tokyo Main Die Yukata Company to produce these yukata to help with sales of their magazine, the Tokyo Main Die Yukata Company buys the synthetic die from BASF, adorns their high-quality cotton with indigo-colored shrimp, asks a famous actress/singer to promote the product wearing samples of the fabric via a bromide card, secures the card to the fabric, packages it up, sends it to a local shop, puts a ¥980 price on it (about $22.00 at 2018 prices), sells it to their customer.....and 50 years later you have this beautifully crafted and packaged product that now resides in my collection.  I hope everyone enjoys the rest of their week!








4 comments:

  1. You're killin' it with the history lately! Also, the scenario you put forth as to how the fabric was sold, makes me think of how Panini markets some of there memorabilia cards, especially the one's where they have a rookie wear something just long enough for them to get a photograph, then cut up what ever the item was and "sell" it in the form of a bunch of cards -- not exactly the same, but similar in a way?

    And I collect way too many things already, but if I didn't, I'd seriously think about trying to pick up some of these fabric bundles (especially the one's featuring actresses). I love everything about them, the photos, the patterns on the fabric, heck... even the packaging is pretty!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is interesting how celebrities are used to promote all sorts of products. I really wish I could read the name on the card to figure out which actress/singer this is.

      Delete
  2. Great history lesson Ryan! Gotta ask... is there a particular way you store these bromides and pieces of fabric? Do you have any displayed or framed? I love that swatch you sent me and I'm thinking about framing it up and hanging it in my living room.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks. I usually store them folded in their original packaged state. The main reason is they are so darn big unfolded. This one has to be at least 30-40 feet worth of fabric. The swatch you sent would look perfect framed. Iron it a little and stick it in a nice frame and some instant art. If you do go that route, send some pictures!

      Delete