Well, not a mess, exactly, but there are some fine lengths of cloth amid this scattered group of late nineteenth, early twentieth century indigo dyed cottons.Most of these hand spun, hand woven, shibori dyed cottons are fragments from yukatas or a kind of unlined, casual cotton kimono.In the photo, below, you will a corner of kumo or spiderweb shibori peeking out from behind a pale indigo sample of stitched and tied shibori that is created to show the tatewaku or rising steam motif.The fragment with the delicate, broken stripes was created by first pleating the fabric before vat dyeing it.  The flower forms were dyed using a second process, either by clamping or by stenciling.This is a beautiful array and I will be offering some of these on my website over time.

Japan in the late Edo Period (1603-1868) is a far cry from the Japan of today.  Enduring  in modern Japan, however, are traditional pilgrimage circuits where the faithful follow a prescribed course and make their way to a set of distinguished Buddhist temples: the reason I bring up the Edo Period is that this shuin-cho, or pilgrim’s stamp book, dates to 1802.
This book was taken by a pilgrim as he or she circumambulated the island of Shikoku, visiting 88 temples sacred to the renowned Buddhist monk and scholar Kukai (774-835), who brought the Shingon Sect of Esoteric Buddhism to Japan from China.

Above you will see a partial map of the route, and below you will see the cinnabar stamps received by the pilgrim from a priest at the temple: the priest will also write the name of the temple, and, at times, the date of the visit.

It is really impressive that this book has survived over 200 years of history in Japan, some of the recent events of last century being quite devastating, as is universally known.