A Sashiko Stitched Layered Cloth: Chuusen Dyed Asanoha

*reduced from $45.00**
mid twentieth century
28" x 11 3/4", 71 cm x 30.5 cm

This beautifully graphic textile is a hand stitched, finished piece of gauzy weight cotton that has been dyed in a method called chuusen which relies on stencils and a primitive vacuum machine to transfer a pattern to the cloth.

The chuusen-dyed design shown here is that of asanoha or the traditional hemp leaf pattern. As is the hallmark of chuusen dyed cloth you will see faint gaps of dye in the dark areas, and it is this irregularity of dyeing which adds charm to chuusen dyed textiles.

The light weight, layered cloth is hand stitched with indigo dyed cotton thread in equally spaced, horizontally-oriented rows which are set wide apart. The color of the cotton is a kind of muted blue/grey.

This is a wonderfully graphic and seemingly unused Japanese folk textile whose original purpose is unknown-- although cloths of this size were often used as diapers.

Just beautiful.