A Panel of Ragweave Cotton: Sakiori Kotatsugake

ca. mid twentieth century
64" x 14 1/4", 162.5 cm x 36 cm

This is a lovely, beautifully faded length of sakiori, a kind of weaving that uses shredded cloth for its weft yarn; sakiori is the Japanese word for rag woven textiles.

The warp yarns are of two colors, black and pink, and each color occupies half the width of the cloth.  The weft is entirely of cotton rag of dark blue shredded kasuri or ikat, faded pink and mustard colored rag yarns.

Note that the one short end is unraveling a bit although, if handled sensibly, it should be stable.  

Most likely this sakiori panel is taken from a kotatsugake or hearth cover, and it shows some light wear, some slightly bleeding pink tones, and a bit of very superficial soiling on one side of the panel.

Beautiful and unusually colored.  The last piece of its kind in our inventory.

Recommended.