A Length of Beautifully Pieced and Mended Katazome Cotton: Complex Pattern

late nineteenth century
64" x 12 3/4", 162.5 cm x 32.5 cm

This is a length of beautifully hand woven, indigo dyed cotton katazome whose yarns are hand spun. 

As is clear from looking at the photos, this piece has been put together from around four separate pieces of the same cloth, the top portion being most noticeable where this is concerned. As well, by looking very closely, one can also see very subtle mends to the cloth, both near this top area and also at the bottom, each of these areas is shown in the detail photos included here.

The pattern is complex both in design and in symbolism.

We see roundels of stylized plum blossoms, pine trees and bamboo leaves, which create one very popular design motif referred to as shochikubai.

Shochikubai, is the design triad of bamboo, pine and plum blossoms, which conveys good wishes.  Plum shows courage as its blossoms, the first of the year, burst forth from under ice, the bamboo is resilience since it bends but does not break and the pine is a symbol of long life and also of a faithful marriage as its needles fall in pairs.

The background for these densely symbolic roundels is composed of karakusa which is arabesque or trailing vine, a motif often seen on katazome cloth used for bedding, as this one was.

The color, the design and the hidden repairs all combine to make this a very good length of old katazome cotton cloth.

Wonderful.