Tianmen Blue Calico

Tianmen Blue Calico

　　Located in the Jianghan Plain region of Hubei Province, adjacent to the Yangtze River, the area features soil and climate particularly suitable for cotton cultivation, and Tianmen is even nationally renowned as a cotton-producing hub. With the continuous development of the cotton-growing industry came the flourishing of local cotton textile handicrafts. On the other hand, Tianmen had already extensively cultivated indigo plants, which provided a local source of dye for producing blue calico, and this also played a certain role in promoting the development of Tianmen’s blue calico.

According to the *Tianmen County Annals*, “In the 60th year of the Qianlong reign (1795), merchants from Shanxi and Shaanxi bought cotton cloth (local cloth) in Yuejia Kou (Tianmen) and sold it to Shaanxi, Shanxi, and Gansu. The cotton cloth managed by Cai Yunchang in Yuejia Kou was praised by Shanxi merchants as ‘cotton satin’... In the first year of the Daoguang reign (1821), workshops such as Guo Fuxing, Liu Maosheng, and Tang Maosheng in Tianmen County produced blue calico on a large scale. Later, printing and dyeing industries also emerged successively in Yuejia Kou, Gan Town Post, Zao Market, and Yuxin River...”

Blue calico is produced in many places. As a product of the handicraft era, its production techniques are largely similar, but it inevitably carries regional characteristics in other aspects. Blue calico from the Jiangnan region wins people over with its gentle elegance, while Hubei blue calico captivates with its bold strength, serene simplicity, fresh brightness, and lyrical rural charm.