A Panel from a Tsutsugaki Furoshiki: Mottled Dyes

ca. late nineteenth century
54" x 13 1/4", 137 cm x 33.5 cm 

Shown here is a length of tsutsugaki dyed cotton; tsutsugaki is a free hand paste resist technique wherein an artist draws with rice paste directly onto cloth, the areas which are drawn are resistant to dye.

This panel is from a furoshiki, or a traditional wrapping cloth.  The top area is a gun metal grey color and the rest of the cloth is a mottled, warm siena color.  Within the steel grey-blue are we can see a simply rendered pine tree, and in the brown field we see a resist dyed family crest in the form of ivy.

The cotton is nice and thick, hand loomed cloth of good quality, and, as can be seen, the dye shows loss and mottling from age.