A Long and Tattered Tsutsugaki Hemp or Ramie Textile: Celestial Dragons

late 19th century
86" x 12 1/2", 218.5 cm x 31.5 cm

This banner-like, very long length of lightweight, hand plied, hand woven hemp or ramie is richly decorated in the tsutsugaki method where a "pastry bag"-like paper cone filled with rice paste would be used to hand draw designs and images onto cloth.

This length, as can easily be seen, is tattered which indicates it was used well in its previous life in traditional Japan. The ends of the piece are quite shredded, the top end, especially so. Please have a good look at the accompanying detail photos which exaggerate and point out some of the areas of loss on the piece.

The design is bold and vivid: we see richly drawn mythical dragons in a celestial abode which is noted by an abundance of stylized clouds of various color tones. The drawing is vigorous and the scene depicted is meant to convey a sense of awe and power.

The cloth is delicate in the broken areas but somehow these do not distract from the beauty of the piece, in fact the worn and "boro" look add some form of attraction.

Wonderful to look at and quite well-done tsutsugaki drawing.