A Fragment from a 19th Century Yose Juban: Fly Weight Colored Silks

mid nineteenth century
54" x 13", 137 cm x 33 cm

This beautifully colored and figured piece-constructed silk collage is taken from a yose juban, a pieced undergarment which was a typical style undergarment worn by women in old Japan.

The silks which compose this beautiful, vertically oriented piece are all extremely lightweight and thin; there is very little body to them and they literally flutter in the breeze.  But they are all wonderfully designed and executed and they are all hand resist dyed using botanical dye material.

Sixteen separate pieces of silk representing eight different patterns are hand stitched together using silk thread.  Among the primarily katazome dyed variety are itajime and kasuri woven silks: the kasuri woven silks (purple in color) are brittle and are easily broken.

A vibrant length of old silks that would be absolutely beautiful if framed, this is a wonderful textile study piece from old Japan.