This research is aimed at investigating the general description of
Pekalongan, the influence of Surakarta Kingdom, Yogyakarta Kingdom,
colonialism, and Japan on the development of Pekalongan batik, and the process
of batik production, motives, and its philosophy. According to the background and
objectives of the research, this research used the history method by testing and
analyzing the heritage.
The stages of this history method included: 1. Heuristic (finding and
collecting sources), 2. Criticism (covering external factors/authenticity of the
sources and internal factors/credibility of the sources), 3. Interpretation
(interpreting and managing data), and 4. Historiography (recording the history).
The results of the research show that Pekalongan is an area located around
the north coast of Java. Geographically, Pekalongan is easy to visit by various
immigrants such as Indian, Arabic, Chinese, Colonial, and Japanese ethnics, even
the people of Diponegoro Being able to be opened to accept external factors
makes Pekalongan batik develops as a powerful cultural strength for its people.
The developed Pekalongan batik during the colonialism era was influenced by
some factors such as Surakarta and Yogyakarta Kingdom, colonialism, Japan,
India, Arabic, and China. Some ethnics in Pakalongan enrich the batik motives
with their unique characteristics which own particular philosophical values in
each piece. Natural materials were used to make batik during the colonialism era,
starting from ngetel and ngemplong and were finished with the process of drying
under the sun. It can be concluded that Pekalongan batik in the colonialism era is
the result of varied ethnics acculturation happened to be in Pekalongan.