It’s been too long since I’ve last posted here, the reason being that I returned from Japan with a lot of antique Japanese folk textiles I found on my buying trip, and getting them all ready to show is time consuming.

I’ll be rolling out these new items on the webshop, with a good line-up to be shown this coming Wednesday, May 1 at 11 AM NY time.

Shown here is a wonderfully patched, large boro futon cover I just found on my trip.  The combination of the geometric katazome cloth overlaid by the random–and many–patches is gorgeous.  I was really happy when I found this one.

The indigo dyed cotton background shows a repeat pattern of hexagons or kikko, the traditional tortoiseshell pattern.   This design conveys a wish for long life.

The hand loomed cotton is gauzy, very soft and drapey.  The color is a beautifully faded indigo, softened from decades of wear.

The size is nice.  It’s 60″ x 48″ or 152.5 cm x 122 cm and it probably dates to the late nineteenth or early twentieth century.

In my previous blog post from Kyoto, below, I portrayed its delicate beauty by showing a city where the cherry blossoms were at their peak.

This post is about another kind of beauty, a more observational sort.

It seems like a cliche to portray Kyoto in spring as a city of cherry blossoms and a profusion of flowering trees and plants.

Cliche or not, the truth is that Japan comes alive when the cherry trees bloom, and some kind of revitalizing energy is transmitted into the Japan psyche when the cherry trees flower.

Stunningly beautiful scenes become even more so when Kyoto is in full bloom.