A Heavily Stitched Sakabukuro: Lightweight Cotton

early twentieth century
31" x 9", 79 cm x 23 cm

A sakabukuro is a straining bag or filter used in sake production. Crude sake, or sake lees, is poured into this bag. The sealed bag is then subjected to the force of great pressure and the sake is filtered out of the this strainer.

This sakabukuro shows amazingly interesting mending to its fairly lightweight cotton base cloth which seems to be hand loomed. The stitching on this sake filter is unusually good for its density and its regularity. It is an excellent example of its kind.

The cotton base cloth has been saturated with kaki shibu, or green persimmon tannin and shows a relatively pale brownish tone. Please note the narrow holes to the surface, shown on the details photos here.

A very good sakabukuro and one that is highly recommended.