A Beautifully Mended Sakabukuro: Two Open Ends

mid twentieth century
32" x 12", 81 cm x 30.5 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 bag with its rich, chestnut color, its leathery finish and its wonderful mending makes it a particularly good example of a sakabukuro so please have a good look at the many detail photos which accompany this posting.  Please note the sewn crimp to the to top of the sakabukuro, shown in detail photos.

One particularly interesting thing to note is that this sakabukuro is not a bag: its two short sides are open, so you could say that this is tube, not a bag.

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

Recommended.