A Soft Hand Spun Cotton Bag for Bowls or Cups: Broken Paper Lining

late nineteenth century
18 1/4" x 6 1/2", 46.5 cm x 16.5 cm

This unassuming, fairly narrow, hand stitched bag is more interesting than it might appear at first glance.

It is made of thick, hand spun cotton yarns that are, of course, hand woven.

The cloth itself has a nice body and is soft to the touch. Interesting is that the bag was once lined with washi or Japanese paper and there is still some of that clinging to the inside of the bag as can be seen in the accompanying detail photos.

The paper lining was probably meant to be a buffer for the lacquer bowls or cups that were once stacked and stored in this bag. The front of the bag is sashiko stitched with two hiragana syllables--under the stitching one can see that someone drew the syllables onto the bag as a guide for stitching.

More than likely this bag is quite old, probably dating to the late nineteenth century.

A very interesting textile artifact with a lovely folk art quality.