A Very Patched and Rugged Boro Tsunobukuro: Hemp Horn Bag

late nineteenth, early twentieth century
39" x 13", 99 cm x 33 cm

This roughly patched, well-used and intensely mended textile is a tsunobukuro, or horn bag, so called because of its distinctive appearance: this bag is fashioned from one length of cloth hand sewn on the bias, the result of this construction are two "horns" which appear at the top of the bag.

Tsunobukuro are a kind of collector's piece and are well-regarded by those who collect Japanese folk textiles.

Because the cloth of tsunobukuro is set on a bias they were designed to be stretchy in order to accommodate a large volume of rice, grain or beans which it was intended to store. 

This particular tsunobukuro is made of woven hemp that has been saturated in green persimmon tannin. For this reason it is not as pliable as some other horn bags are: repeated dipping in green persimmon tannin stiffens the cloth and creates a deep, rich brown color as we see here.

There is a good amount of textured mending to the bottom of the bag and more patches can be found on the top, near the "horns."

For the serious collector of  old Japanese of rural cloth and utilitarian, functional fabrics, this bag is a welcome addition to your collection both for its condition and its type: it is a very good example of an old, repaired horn bag.

Recommended.