ANTiQUE INDiGO KATaZOME RANRu - buying oLD JaPaNeSe BoRO PiECED HOMESPuN CoTToN FABRiC - FREE SHiPPING!!

This is an antique Japanese ranru, which is a composite cloth, made up of many segments and fragments of cloth all stitched together. These cloths were used around the house for variety of purposes, covering things, wrapping things up, acting as curtains, and so on.

This ranru is made of the chopped-off bottom of a furoshiki, only five-and-a-half panels of what was probably a six panel wide furoshiki, with some unrelated panels atop that to complete it. The bottom furoshiki is a nice rich indigo color, with katazome crests dyed into it. The crests are cut off halfway through, though. One of the pieces atop that is an interesting gray color, possibly naturally dyed, and it has part of what looks to be the exact same katazome crest as is on the fabric below. That makes sense, because the family probably commissioned pieces with their crest from a dyehouse, and probably had more than just one around. Perhaps they even made their own? The fabric is handwoven. Altogether, there is nine pieces of fabric pieced together. The fabrics are rich with texture.

These fabrics are light to medium weave cottons. They are flexible and soft. There are numerous small holes throughout the pieces, though, in most of the panels. You can see them relatively easily in the photos. So the fabric might be better used as tapestry on a wall, or as home decor, or as a cutter to create fabric for many smaller pieces. But it might not be the best for clothing, or something which requires it to be perfect and super sturdy.....but now that I think of it, it would make a cool shawl.

And just a note about katazome. It means stencil dye, basically. A thickened rice paste called nori is used as a resist agent. It is applied with stencils to certain areas of the fabric only, so that when the fabric is subsequently dyed, those areas remain undyed. The dye 'resists' that area, and that is why such a process is called 'resist dyeing'. And we can see these fabrics are perfectly white on both sides, so the must have been rice pasted on both sides. The work involved in these processes can be time consuming and tedious.

more photos over here

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=RCarbinEthnotextiles&set=a.447184030530976

dimensions

168 cms wide (66 inches)
85 cms high (33 inches)

289 grams

Will send this in the regular airmail, or in case of covid mail restrictions, what is available.
* (at the moment, free postage which I offer to the US, Canada, the UK, Germany, France and Australia has been downgraded to sea mail. EMS to the US and various countries is available with more postage paid and is definitely recommended if you need the item in any certain timeframe. Inquire via DM)

FREE SHIPPING!!!! It is included in the price.

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Thank buying you.

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