A Length of Rustic Kasuri: Rough Selvedge

late nineteenth century
60" x 12 1/2", 152.5 cm x 31.75 cm

This is much more beautiful in person than in photographs; the quality of the hand woven cotton and its yarns, likely hand spun, are just what you would want to see in a very good Japanese folk textile.

The cotton is of a heavy weight and the design is very simple: white squares each with a small white square floating at its corner.  In between are weft-based images, rather scrambled, but they appear to be a deer (very rarely seen, if that is what the image is) and (possibly) a maple leaf.

It is the high quality hand woven cotton and the stark design which make this folk textile so wonderful.  The indigo color is still very bright and rich and this is a fantastic addition to any collection of Japanese country textiles. Please note the very shaggy selvedge, an interesting detail.

Recommended.