yamamomo 山桃

Also written 楊梅樹. A brown vegetable dye senryō 染料 obtained from the evergreen tree Myrica rubra, which grows in the mountains of southern Honshū 本州. The tree bark, called momokawa 桃皮 or shibuki 渋木, is boiled in water for approximately 24 hours to produce the dye. Used with an alum or ash lye mordant, yamamomo produced a golden-brown shade called kincha 金茶, and an iron mordant creates an olive-to gray-brown color yamamomo-iro 山桃色. It can also be top-dyed on indigo *ai 藍 to give black. Yamamomo has been used in Japan since the Nara period and was popular as an overdye during the Edo period.