A Beautifully Mended Sakabukuro: Dense Eddies of Stitching

early twentieth century
28" x 9 1/4", 71 cm x 23.5 cm

Sakabukuro, or sake straining bags, are beautiful boro textiles. Made of cotton saturated with green persimmon tannin, or kaki shibu, which gives the distinctive brown color, this utilitarian textile was used in sake making.

Crude sake, or sake lees, was placed in this bag and pressure was applied to squeeze out and filter the liquid. Repeated use required repeated mendings and we see the wonderfully odd stitches applied for this purpose.  

This wonderful bag shows narrow but dense areas of mending stitches--this particular sakabukuro is desirable not only because it has so much stitching but also because some of the mending thread is of hemp.

Please note the tear to the top of the bag, illustrated in the attached detail photographs.

A really wonderful sakabukuro, and one of a high quality and attractiveness that is becoming more and more difficult to find.

Recommended.