A Meiji Era Tenugui: Blank Shibori and Plum Blossom
late nineteenth, early twentieth century
12" x 34", 30.5 cm x 86.5 cm
This is a tenugui or a traditional cotton hand towel that is ubiquitous in Japan.
This one is special because unlike most tenugui which are stencil dyed this one is dyed in beautifully-done, selectively hand dip dyed indigo --and it is old, it dates to the Meiji period.
On the left we see an expertly done plum blossom which is rendered using a stitched shibori method. It is beautiful, and as a detail photo shows there is a fragment of the original shibori thread still embedded in the plum design.
The center shows three expertly stitched kanji or Chinese characters, probably the name of the shop that offered this tenugui as a gift to its patrons--and what is notable is that the dip-dyed shibori was not done properly thus leaving some of these kanji blank. The appear only as texture, not as a dyed image.
The upper, right hand corner shows a fan of pleated shibori that contains very delicate details. Just wonderful.
The shibori on this tenugui is extremely fine and very well done--and this one is part of a group of variations that will be offered here over time.
This piece is almost assuredly from Narumi/Arimatsu, a booming and powerful center of shibori production and brokering.
A tenugui is a traditional cotton hand towel that is ubiquitous in Japan because of its many uses. It can be used to mop sweat from a brow in summer; it can be worn on the head, kerchief-like, while working; it can be twisted and worn as a sweat band like sushi chefs do: there are endless ways to use a tenugui.
Sometimes these lengths of cotton are used by stores as a give away, sometimes as gifts at new year, other time for store promotions. Sometimes tenugui are brought back from trips as souvenirs if they are imprinted with a specialized image specific to certain region or town.
Although we do not know the actual original owner or provider of this gift tenugui it might be that it was a shop or a shibori dyer, a yukata broker or some other trade that relates to cloth and shibori.
No matter its origin or original purpose this is a very handsome one, rare for its expert shibori dying and for its artful composition and its very nice, old cotton.
Recommended.
