Since we are in late summer, I thought I would show some old rolls of hemp kaya, or mosquito netting, which is very much necessary in the hot, humid, buggy Japanese summers.Kaya is usually produced in this family of colors: undyed, indigo dyed, and indigo which is over dyed with a yellow dye, as can be seen on the roll on the right.  The middle roll is offered for sale on the webshop, here.
Sometimes indigo dyed kaya has a blue/green look in certain lights; the warm color of the natural hemp can push a soft blue tone into the soft green color range.The three rolls are nested in an old, hand-hewn and repaired Korean wooden bowl.  Under the bowl is a three panel fragment of an old, boro kaya, taken from the same tent as this one.

Live and learn.  Until this spring, when I found this length of plaid kaya, or traditional hemp mosquito netting, I hadn’t seen any kaya that was patterned.  Previously, I had seen it only undyed or piece dyed in blue, green or blue green–or, in the case of mid-to-late 20th century examples, dyed in a kind of gradient ombre.So, not only was it a real treat (it still is) to find patterned kaya, it was especially gratifying to find such a good looking example.The kaya certainly shows wear, some overall light fading and some faded splotches, but what a gorgeous length of asa cloth.The green color is woven into the cloth, not stencil applied.  And it’s subtle.  And beautiful.