A Fragment of a Heavily Sashiko Stitched Boro Noragi: Beautiful Stitching and Wear

early twentieth century
18" x 25", 45.5 cm x 63.5 cm

This is a beautifully worn, beautifully stitched large piece from an indigo dyed cotton noragi or work coat.

This fairly large piece is sashiko stitched all over its surface in parallel, vertical rows. The sashiko stitching was no doubt done to quilt together the two layers which compose the piece. Additional, dark colored mending patches were added later and form a third layer.

The arrangement of patches is artful and beautiful to look at. The big, dark blocks of indigo against the background of so much sashiko stitching is what is so interesting about old folk textiles from Japan and this piece exemplifies this aspect well.

In addition, the reverse side of this piece, what would have been the proper outside of the coat (shown here in detail photos) presents a delicately abraded surface and a rich, warm, faded indigo blue--just beautiful.