A Boro and Patched Hand Painted Nobori Bata Fragment: Repaired

early to mid twentieth century
64" x 19", 162.5 cm x 48.25 cm

This curious battered and repaired cotton fragment was taken from a nobori bata. In this case, this was a decorative banner that was flown to celebrate boys and children. Banners flown outside homes to celebrate boy's day, a holiday in Japan, were often decorated with "masculine" subject matter, often depictions of historical scenes or of samurai were painted on these nobori bata as way of encouraging and celebrating valor and noble, masculine traits.

In this case we seem to have a historical scene that was rendered using resist dyeing methods in combination with hand painting. The image is very faded, very worn and as can easily be seen, it is very patched.

Interesting to note is the hand of the subject of this painting: a repaired hole interrupted the original image of this hand and someone took it upon themselves to re-draw the hand over the patched area to keep the look and flow of the drawing intact. Really delightful.

Both sides of this banner's fragment are shown here to get a sense of the look of the piece and to see the layers of mending--some now lost--that were applied to the back of this flag.