A Length of Lushly Designed Sakai Sarasa: Rare Stenciled Cotton

mid nineteenth century
29 1/4" x 13 1/4", 74 cm x 33.5 cm

This is length of stencil dyed, hand spun, hand woven cotton cloth that is meant to evoke the feeling of Indian trade cloth or sarasa.

In Japan during the Edo period, sarasa was collected by connoisseurs of beauty who were people of great means and high social position. The fact that sarasa was imported and exotic was a lure for attraction--and add to that the mastery of hand drawn design, color and dye achieved by Indian textile artisans drew interested from Japan's elite.

Sakai sarasa, of which this is an example, is named for the Sakai area of Osaka where this type of cloth was produced and its design was influenced by Indian trade cloth.

Sakai sarasa was a kind of luxury fabric in its day and even in the present era it is considered as such in Japan. 

This length shows a complex pattern of wildly stylized flowers in a fairly large repeat in colors of ochre, red, green and grey, all still quite saturated and not worn away by time. For Sakai sarasa, since quite a lot of it is faded, this detail is notable and adds value. 

Very recommended for its rarity and its cultural value.