ca. mid nineteenth century
24" x 48", 61 cm x 122 cm

Simply fabulous. This hand loomed cotton jacket is decorated with an intensely intricate katazome, or stencil resist pattern: one can only dream about the minutely perforated, hand cut stencil which was used to resist indigo dye from the white cotton in order to produce this wonderful pattern.

Bats are auspicious in Japanese symbology as one of the kanji used to write the word bat can also be pronounced in a way where one hears the word fortune, the pronunciation being homophonic to another word. The bats are flying on a ground of cross hatching that is screen-door tight; this blue field resembles mist. The large cross hatches are well cribs, a very popular Japanese motif that is not rich in connotation, but used for its graphic impact.

Exceedingly collectible, this piece carries with it the highest recommendation.