I hope by placing the adult’s indigo dyed cotton tabi underneath the pair of child’s white tabi on the right, you will get a sense of just how tiny these tabi really are.

They’re cotton, and just like the adult’s pair, the children’s version are also worn hard and reinforced with sashiko stitching and patches.

I don’t think that I need to supply much commentary here.  The photos say it all.

Beginning today and for the next two weeks I’ll be in Japan sourcing new textiles.  But I’ll be regularly posting on this blog while I’m gone, so keep checking in as there are some interesting postings in the works.I chose to show this little maneki neko on this farewell posting as he looks as if he is waving good-bye: those of you who know about maneki neko know that he is doing just the opposite: he’s beckoning.
And I join maneki neko in welcoming  you to continue visiting my blog while I’m away, and to tune into my website again on 24 March when I will be updating it with new items.  Until the next time…

What a striking, paste resist, indigo dyed cotton noren or door covering.  It is sewn from six panels which creates an almost monumental presence, the actual size being 68″ x 73″ or 163 cm x 185.5 cm.

Centrally placed is the large, mon, or  family crest, in this case it is an unusual, stylized rendering of kashiwa or oak.  Beneath the mon in stepped formation is the wonderfully zigzag matsukawa bishi or pine bark motif.This noren probably dates to the early twentieth century–perhaps just a bit earlier.  Its size indicates that it was probably meant to hang in front of a building; also indicative of this is the very tightly woven, heavy cotton which would have been strong enough to withstand the elements, street traffic and its dust and dirt.Notice how the matsukawa bishi pattern interlocks and creates another iteration of itself in the negative spaces?  Notice, too, how the selvedge edge of each panel is finished: each edge is back stitched in contrasting, white thread.This is a beautifully designed, beautifully executed old noren.

Today I am showing some photos that are about mood, texture and materials.The rolled and tied sashiko stitched cotton fragment sits in a hand carved soba noodle dough mixing bowl along with a ball of indigo, katazome dyed  Edo komon hemp cloth which was taken from a kamishimo.The massive wooden bowl, which was carved and hollowed from the cross section of a single tree, shows a metal plate that mends its lip.  The bowl’s wood is deeply colored, rich in patina and beautifully heavy.In the photo above, note the surface of the bowl’s interior.An old piece of indigo dyed cotton kasuri or ikat cloth is used to tie the sashiko stitched bundle.

Shown today are two full tan or bolts of indigo dyed cotton shibori from Arimatsu, Japan, Arimatsu being one of  Japan’s great shibori producing centers.

Within the cities of Arimatsu and Narumi, countless families were engaged in all aspects of shibori making and finishing, and within this hotbed of shape resist dyeing, amazing technical innovations flourished during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.Pictured on the left in the photo above is a bolt of indigo dyed cotton showing the shirokage or white shadow technique, the pattern being that of the tortoise shell or kikko.The bolt on the right, above, seems to be  a vertical, fine wood grain (tate komokume) type of arashi or pole-wrapped shibori. A similar example is shown in Shibori: The Inventive Art of Japanese Shape Resist Dyeing on page 176, figure 245.

The cotton is both hand spun and hand woven, and is gorgeous to the touch.