A Length of Rare Orange Ground Narumi Kongata: Katazome as Shibori

late nineteenth century
28" x 13", 71 cm x 33 cm

Narumi kongata is a beautiful type of stencil resist cloth which utilized a set of stencils when used in combination would yield a length of cloth that mimicked the look of shibori as soft edges and shibori-like effects would be seen on the finished cloth.

Here we see a short length of a rare type of hand woven cotton Narumi kongata: it is rare because of the orange ground which is hardly ever seen.

The orange tone produces a moody effect that is singularly beautiful and, as said before, is rare to find. The floral motif repeat is spare and for that reason it adds flavor to the moodiness of the design. The stencil resist dyed background is meant to mimic the look of miura shibori.

This length is definitely wonderful and unusual and would certainly be a welcome addition to any collection of katazome cloth or Japanese folk textiles.

Recommended.