An Indigo Dyed Cotton Boro Apron: Shonai Style Kasuri

$95.00 USD

early to mid twentieth century
24" x 34", 61 cm x 86.5 cm

This well-worn, tattered, pieced, patched and threadbare indigo dyed cotton garment is a hand stitched apron.

In the past, in Japan aprons were worn all the time by all classes of people, especially working people. 

Women at home wore them to do housekeeping, farmers and tradesmen wore them, shopkeepers wore them--in the past, aprons or maekake were part of one's daily clothing, and, still, today, many people today in Japan wear aprons on a daily basis.

This wonderful example was clearly worn by a woman in the home.  The body of the apron is made of an indigo dyed kasuri cotton the kasuri pattern being spare and of the type associated with the Shonai area of Yamagata prefecture, a place in Japan's rural Tohoku or north east region.

The apron is pieced together and mended with patches, and as can be seen on the accompanying detail photographs, the indigo dyed cotton is threadbare in areas and shows holes and a good deal of wear.

The cotton tie or banding on the top is katazome dyed cotton.

A really charming old garment from Japan, and one that contains traces of the history of the woman who made and owned it.

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