A Length of Large Scale Patterned Katazome Cloth: Deep Toned Peonies

late nineteenth, early twentieth century
55" x 13 1/2", 140 cm x 34 cm

This is a length of jishiro katazome or katazome cloth whose image is blue-on-white, not the more often seen white-on-blue.

The cotton cloth is hand woven from hand spun yarns, just beautiful, and the bold, oversized repeat shows peonies against a background of large-scale karakusa or arabesque.

The condition is used and rather good, there is a patch to the back of the top of the length, shown here in a detail photo.

The graphic power of the image combined with the intensely saturated indigo tone makes this a very appealing length of old katazome dyed cotton.