A Fragment of Dark Toned Katazome: Phoenixes as Roundels

late nineteenth, early twentieth century
22" x 13 1/4", 56 cm x 33.5 cm

The visual tone of this dark fragment of old katazome dyed cotton is intriguing. The cloth shows phoenixes depicted as roundels against a background of karakusa or trailing vine or arabesque.

The ground color is a rich, warmish grey tone and the images and arabesque are indigo dyed. 

The phoenixes are shown with paulownia flowers, which are the only terrestrial mount the mythical bird will touch when it descends to Earth. 

The cotton is hand spun and hand woven and this detail adds greatly to the textural beauty of this very good quality, old length of cotton.