A Very Good Boro Sakabukuro: Patched Sake Filter

early twentieth century
28 1/4" x 10 1/2", 72.5 cm x 26.5 cm

Sakabukuro, or sake straining bags, are beautiful boro textiles. Made of cotton saturated with green persimmon tannin, or kaki shibu, which gives the distinctive brown color, this utilitarian textile was used in sake making.

Crude sake, or sake lees, was placed in this bag and pressure was applied to squeeze out and filter the liquid. Repeated use required repeated mendings and we see the wonderfully odd stitches applied for this purpose.  

This is an excellent example of a sakabukuro and it shows beautifully placed, rough patches and mending areas in good quantity: the base cloth of the sakabukuro shows vertically-oriented stripes of heavy cotton thread, either stitched or woven into the cloth.

On the bottom, left of the back of the bag the corner of the sakabukuro is torn free.

A very, very good sakabukuro, and one of a very high quality.

Recommended.