A Layered Cotton Kotatsugake: Simply Designed Pieced Hearth Cover

mid twentieth century
60" x 59 1/2", 152.4 cm x 151 cm

This is a kotatsugake which is a cloth to be draped over a heated table or kotatsu. The draped cloth traps the heat so a family who gathers near the hearth and places their legs under the cloth stays warm. 

This kotatsugake is made of repurposed cottons: solid-dyed cotton for the center panel of both sides and plaid cloth for the flanking panels. In one case we have what seems to be a large-scale, commercially loomed red plaid cotton and the other case shows a plaid cotton cloth woven from leftover yarns or a cloth called zanshi ori.

The kotatsugake is heavy from what seems to be three layers of cotton joined together; it is still rather drapey and supple in feeling, it is not "rug weight" but it is more like a blanket or throw.

Simply designed, absolutely traditional in its making and application, this is a really nice old kotatsugake from the time braziers were used to heat tables--not like now when a kotatsugake would be an electric blanket (yes, kotatsugake are still used all over Japan today).

Lovely.