A Mid-Twentieth Century Shimacho: Stripe Album

mid twentieth century
6" x 8 3/4" x 3/4", 15 cm x 22.25 cm x 2 cm
17 pages

In old Japan, women would create albums filled with samples of their handwoven cotton cloth.  These shimacho, or stripe albums, as they are called were meant to be a record of a family's weaving and were intended to act as a reference for future generations.  It is said that a young bride would carry a family shimacho with her when she went to live with her husband and his family, which is probably true, but may also romanticize the truth a bit.

This shimacho seems to have been put together sometime in the mid-twentieth century out of fairly old scraps that date from the Meiji era (1868-1912) onward.  The pieces are pasted onto the 17 pages into a commercially produced book: look at the accompanying detail photos to see that some pages are printed with large images over which these swatches are pasted.

A very good looking book with a great many swatches of old cloth.

Recommended.