A Length of Festival Katazome Cotton: Wide Diagonal Stripes

early twentieth century
87" x 13", 221 cm x 33 cm

This is a good-sized length of rustic indigo katazome dyed cotton. Its dyeing technique is imperfect--there are skids and skips to the diagonal markings--and this imperfection lends charm to the length.

This boldly decorated length of cotton was intended to be used for festival purposes; it is of a type of cloth that was often used as a horse lead: the length would be folded in quarters lengthwise creating a narrow piece that would be used to guide a horse through whatever ceremonies or festivals were happening at the time.

This particular length shows wear in the form of several small holes (pictured) and some fading and ingrained dirt from wear.

An interesting detail is the small passage of kanji at the lower, short end of the length, illustrated in the attached detail photos.

A beautiful thing, and a lot of it.