A Folio of 30 Textile Designs from Kyoto: Meiji Era

ca. late nineteenth, early twentieth century
15 3/4" x 11", 40 cm x 28 cm

This "booklet" is composed of thirty leaves of tissue weight paper that have been bound together by two simple bindings on one of the short ends of the group of paper.

This assortment of thirty fabulous hand drawn and hand colored designs comes from a textile design studio in Kyoto, and is said to date to the Meiji Era (1868-1912).

Each page shows an individual repeat design rendered in a rust/orange watercolor pigment, quite diluted with water.  The images are delicate and precise.

But the images are beautiful, varied and expertly rendered.

Some of the images are what can be called traditional Japanese motifs and many are based in botanical designs shown in circular format, but other are based on grids and diagonals and call to mind the work of the early Modernist textile designs of the Wiener Werkstatte, a group who looked toward Japan for design inspiration and who are well known to have collected katagami or Japanese textile stencils.

This booklet is a treasure trove for the designer, or for the aficionado of Japanese textile design.  As the sampling of designs seen on the accompanying photos indicates, there are remarkable images to appreciate in this collection of thirty.  

Very much recommended.