A Length of Jishiro Katazome: Large Scale Interlocking Circles

late nineteenth, early twentieth century
35 1/2" x 13 1/2", 90 cm x 34.25 cm

This is a length of very good quality, old hand spun, hand woven cotton that was dyed in the katazome or stencil resist technique. As it is a blue-on-white design it is referred to as jishiro.

The design is a large-scale interlocking circles pattern called shippo tsunagi. Each of the centers of the elaborately rendered circles contains a "diamond flower," so-called because of its four-petalled construction.

The cloth is faded with some more intense fading at the bottom of the length: this fading, however, not only shows off the beautifully soft indigo tones but it also serves to reveal the hand spun cotton yarns used to weave this length.

A very good piece of old indigo dyed katazome cotton.