A Striped Cotton Furoshiki: Absolutely Beautiful Hand Spun, Hand Woven Cloth

late nineteenth, early twentieth century
58" x 51", 147.5 cm x 129.5 cm

A furoshiki is a traditional wrapping, storage or hauling cloth which is still very much in use all over Japan.

This is a particularly handsome one that is composed of four separate panels of hand woven striped cotton cloth.

Its left and right edges are sashiko stitched for durability and the entire piece is hand stitched together.

The cotton is fairly heavy weight and the design and color of the striped cloth is especially nice. There is, as can easily be seen, a small hole to the top of the furoshiki, on the top, left of the second panel in from the right.

On the second panel in from the left, about one-quarter of the way up the length there is a horizontally-oriented bar of light fading, rather faint but still somewhat noticeable.

There is a good amount of usable cloth here: if you plan to disassemble it and use its pieces please know that the center of the furoshiki is slightly distended from use and this is ingrained in the cloth and will not come out with ironing.

Still this is a very sturdy old furoshiki which is hand made from wonderful, hand loomed cotton--and lots of it.