A Piece of 19th Century Silk: Itajime or Kyokechi

$25.00 USD

ca. mid to late nineteenth century
23" x 10", 58.5 cm x 25.5 cm

This is a lovely length of very thin chirimen silk which is dyed in benibana or safflower; the indigo silk piece is tsumugi silk.

The benibana silk is dyed in the itajime or clamp resist dyed method, where carved wooden blocks are clamped over cloth, the clamping creating a resist dye and producing a specified image.  Please see our blog posting, here, for more information on this process.

The indigo dyed silk is produced using a stencil resist dye method called katazome, the lyrical image imprinted on cloth is that of butterflies and flowers, the swirling lines being the path of the butterfly.

Some slight light fading and soiling.

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A Piece of 19th Century Silk: Itajime or Kyokechi