A Beautifully Stitched Zokin: Traditional Dust Rag

early to mid twentieth century
9" x 13", 23 cm x 33 cm

A zokin is a traditional Japanese dust cloth or cleaning rag; it is usually made from old pieces of cloth and it is usually layered and stitched for durability.   

Along with diapers, zokin are among the traditional household textiles that represent the end of the line where the repurposing or recycling of cloth is concerned.

This seemingly unused example shows a sashiko stitched zokin made from recycled, very brown-toned kimono cotton and stitched in a grid with an overlapping X.

Really lovely.