ca. late nineteenth century
65" x 48", 165 cm x 122 cm

This wonderful, boro noren, or "ragged" door covering, is made of indigo dyed cotton dyed in the tsutsugaki method.  Tsutsugaki is a highly skilled textile dyeing process in which an artisan draws directly onto cloth using rice paste squeezed through a cone, the cone being like a pastry bag.  Wherever the rice paste has touched the cloth, indigo dye will be resisted. 

One can only imagine the skill necessary to draw with assurance using this method: there is no chance for mistakes when applying rice paste to the cloth.

This noren was repurposed from what seems to have been a futon cover which shows plum and pine--and 2/3 of a large, central family crest, the middle panel of which has not been incorporated into the noren. 

Elaborately decorated cloth, such as the futon cover from which this noren has been repurposed, was created in the Meiji Era (1868-1912) to be used in bridal trousseaux, as such, the cloth was decorated with auspicious symbols meant to confer good wishes on the newly married couple.  Plum, being the first to issue blooms in early spring--often through frost or ice--represents courage; pine represents long life and as its needles fall in pairs, it a sign of conjugal fidelity.

Note wonderful patching and stitching to this boro noren, on back and front--and note as well the wonderfully realized and complex tsutsugaki image which is central to the piece.  Of the nine 'loops' on the top of the piece, please note that one is damaged.

Gorgeous, and a real taste of old Japan.