A Fragment from a Shrine Banner: Resist Dyed Hand Spun Cotton

ca. early twentieth century
70" x 13", 178 cm x 33 cm 

As the title of this posting says, this length of resist dyed indigo cotton was cut from a larger piece, the entire thing being a banner which was hung outside Shinto shrines for commemorative purposes.

The cotton is beautifully hand spun and hand woven and is deeply dyed in indigo.  The kanji, or Chinese characters, were resisted using a stencil.  Really lovely to look at.

What can be seen on this fragment by looking at the accompanying detail photos is that there is some damage to this length: there is an area composed of small holes, and then there are some light colored stains to the surface which are also illustrated.

These shrine banners are usually flown to honor a contribution made to the shrine or in commemoration of a festival day.  Almost always the date of this event is noted on the banner.

Beautiful.