A Resist Dyed Cotton Noren: Door Covering

**reduced from $195.00**
early twentieth century
60 1/2" x 38 1/2", 153.5 cm x 98 cm

This is a three-panel, resist-dyed heavy cotton noren, a noren being a traditional curtain that acts as a shop sign or a kind of cover for an entrance way depending how the noren is used.  

The noren is completely hand stitched and these very nice details are amply illustrated in the accompanying detail photos. 

Noren not only acted as shop signs--they are hung in the doorway of a business to announce the shop is open--but they also provided a barrier between the dust and chaos of the street and the inside of the shop or home. Additionally they provide some sort of psychological effect of delineating the transition between outside and inside.

The two kanji or Chinese are resist dyed and show the natural color of the cotton cloth. They read as a family name (Yasui) which is probably the name of a business. The small kanji reads as the direction south.

A handsome, still very usable traditional noren.