An Interestingly Stitched Sakabukuro: Bold Stitching

ca. mid twentieth century
24" x 8 1/2", 61 cm x 21.5 cm

Shown here is a sakabukuro, or a sake straining bag. 

This mended bag is made of commercially produced cotton which has been saturated with green persimmon tannin, or kaki shibu.  Kaki shibu gives this bag its 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 mending and we see the wonderful stitches applied for this purpose. 

This bag shows selectively stitched areas of mending done in thick, cotton threads, which have been slightly overdyed in kaki shibu.

A really lovely, good looking sakabukuro with a lot of character and with slightly unusual, spare mending stitches.