A Three Panel Tsutsugaki Dyed Noren: Hand Spun Cotton

late nineteenth, early twentieth century
43 1/4" x 38 1/2", 109.5 cm x 98 cm

This is a well-worn three-panel, resist-dyed heavy cotton noren, a noren being a traditional curtain that acts as a shop sign or a kind of cover for an entrance way depending how the noren is used.  

Noren not only acted as shop signs--they are hung in the doorway of a business to announce the shop is open--but they also provided a barrier between the dust and chaos of the street and the inside of the shop or home. Additionally they provide some sort of psychological effect of delineating the transition between outside and inside.

This particular noren is completely hand stitched and is made of hand spun, hand woven cotton that has been resist dyed in indigo.

As is very clear from the discoloration to the undyed areas of the centrally-placed, encircled kanji or Chinese character this is a noren that was actually used and it must have been hanging for a good amount of time. More evidence for this is in the patching (pictured), the aforementioned darkening of the white areas, and the nick to the top, left hand corner, picture.

This is a very handsome, still very usable traditional noren this and one that was displayed for a good, long time in front of a traditional shop in old Japan.