A Beautiful Length of Katazome Dyed Cotton: Waves and Flowers

early twentieth century
52" x 13", 132 cm x 33 cm

This is a length of indigo dyed katazome cotton with an intriguing design: it shows flowers against a field of arabesque design.

However if you look closer you will see that the flowers are made of ocean waves and the arabesque is some kind of phoenix hybrid design. Very unusual.

The pattern is playful and clearly it was meant to delight the eye. And even more delightful to the eye is that one patch to the left, center area that is barely seen unless if you look closely.

This kind of design shows the dedicated inventiveness of katagami, or katazome stencil artists who have created ingenious variations on countless motifs in endless variation.

This wonderfully original pattern is certainly not often seen and it is a pleasure to present it today.