Few have, but thanks to Japanese folk textiles, we are all given this rare opportunity.Some time ago, when looking at a large depiction of a butterfly on a tsutsugaki futon cover, I discovered that Japanese textile artisans sometimes show the butterfly up-close and head on: you can literally lock eyes with the beauty, as you can do here, on this four-panel furoshiki, or traditional wrapping cloth.Very unusual–especially since the face of a butterfly lacks the elegance of its wings, which is the reason the Japanese admire the butterfly, for its delicacy and its ethereal elegance.

This is a  marvelous, 19th century cotton furoshiki: it is dyed in the tsutsugaki method whereby rice paste is applied freehand directly to cloth; where there is rice paste, dye will be resisted.  The furoshiki was first dyed in indigo then it was overdyed using a yellow dyestuff, yielding a rich, mossy green color.  Said butterfly is at the center of the design; it is surrounded by a traditional “snowflake” form and the remaining ground around the central design is decorated by free-form, very animated pairs of pine needles.The cotton yarn is hand spun and the cloth is hand woven.  This piece is rich in ito aji or “thread taste,” which is something one should always look for when acquiring old, Japanese folk cotton.  There is nothing more beautiful than wonderfully hand spun cotton cloth.The depiction of pine needles is wonderfully spirited.  The Japanese often associate pine needles with conjugal fidelity since the pine is a symbol of long life and pine needles fall in pairs.The furoshiki measures 55″ x 52″ or 140 cm x 132 cm.  It’s fantastic.

This resist dyed, cotton, indigo furoshiki, a traditional wrapping cloth, is quite unusual.  Usually resist dyeing in Japan is done with rice paste and stencils (katazome) or by drawing directly on to cloth using a kind of cone applicator to guide the rice paste onto the cloth (tsutsugaki).

The free form, non-repeating, resisted white marks on this furoshiki were not done in either the katazome or tsutsugaki technique, but rather they were just spattered all-over the cloth, freestyle.Of course we are all thinking the same thing: Jackson Pollock.   And probably for good reason.  The action painting of New York’s Abstract Expressionist painters infiltrated culture all over the globe, so it’s not at all wrong to think that Pollock’s groundbreaking drip technique, pioneered in the 1950s, should be copied by an indigo dyer in Japan, probably some time in the 1960s or 70s when this furoshiki was made.I am sure the indigo artisan who dyed this furoshiki was having a little fun, experimenting with technique and nodding his head to the radical paintings of Post-War America.  Certainly the results the dyer achieved while dyeing this cloth are really delightful and vibrant.  Have a look: