A Length of Rustic Akita Shibori: Plum Blossoms and Folding Fans

late nineteenth, early twentieth century
52 1/2" x 13", 133.5 cm x 33 cm

This is a length of finely made, lightweight, hand spun, hand woven indigo cotton cloth that was dyed in the shibori method in Akita, a rural area in Japan's Tohoku northeastern region.

Akita shibori is characterized by a dark ground with rustic images, often spare in their design and placement. This one is lively as it shows a very nicely and spirited repeat of folding fans and branches of plum blossoms.

The outlines of the images are drawn or resisted  with stitched shibori. The folding fan is filled in with a kind of dappled shibori called miura and this is done in two tones of indigo. The center of the plum blossoms is done using a tie dye technique.

The cloth was probably once used as either a yukata or a futon cover (or both) and as such it shows a bit of wear from use and ingrained creases on the selvedge area. There is one, small, L-shaped tear to the cloth shown in the last detail photo.

Akita shibori is less often seen than the shibori from Arimatsu, Japan's shibori producing "capital" and for that reason this piece in its good condition and richly designed and executed pattern has a kind of collectible desirability.

Recommended.