An Old Cotton Zabuton: Overdyed Indigo and Faux Indian Design

late nineteenth century
21 1/4" x 20", 54 cm x 51 cm

This is a cover for a zabuton, a traditional Japanese seating cushion.

It is hand stitched from hand loomed cotton: the central panel of the zabuton cover is a piece of very nice (apparently commercially made) old cotton that is meant to mimic the style of an Indian kalamkari which is a kind of elaborately hand drawn, hand painted, dyed and mordanted decorative cloth

Surrounding this fragment is a border and backing of green colored hand spun, hand loomed cotton: the gorgeous, green tone is the result of cotton being first dyed in indigo and then over dyed in a yellow dye. 

Please look carefully at the attendant detail photos to see that there is some ingrained dirt and very faint stains to this green cotton, which is not surprising to note since this zabuton cover is about 100 years old and was used in someone's home. 

Note as well a few loose threads to the seams.

A really charming home textile from old Japan--easily stuffed to make a pillow or even easier to display as art.