ca. early to mid twentieth century
31" x 28", 78.5 cm x 71 cm

Although it looks straightforward and deceptively simple, this wonderfully colored, handwoven furoshiki, or traditional wrapping cloth, is full of visual surprises

The warp of this cloth is fixed and create a dominant "north-south" axis on the cloth, while the weft yarns are a bit different: if you look carefully at the weft going from top to bottom and then side to side, you will see that the color/ pattern progression down the cloth mutates very subtly.  Why?  Because the weft was fed with leftover yarns, creating a kind of cloth called zanshi or left-over cloth.

Note the inclusion of blue yarns on the upper, left quadrant of the weft of the piece: on the upper right quadrant note the inclusion of a kind of blurred weft, again, due to the use of leftover threads.  Throughout the piece you will see random flecks of white here and there, which are the result of random kasuri or ikat threads being used as the weft yarn.

As well, notice on the top, left corner and bottom, right, the chainstitch sashiko stitching which details the name of the owner of the furoshiki.  Notice on the lower, right hand corner you can still see some of the original ink used to write the name as a guide for the sashiko stitching.

All in all, this is a wonderfully rich cloth, not at all apparent at first glance.

Unused and recommended.