Vintage & Antique Japanese Fabrics by Piece: Other Type Fabrics

7135: 1960's Japanese Pongee Silk Ohshima Tsumugi,60 inches Arai-Hari

Rare Japanese Textiles:

1960's Ohshima Tsumugi (Pongee) Silk Fabric
Arai-Hari
Abstract/Modernistic, Geometrics

Catalog# 7135

Width:14.5 inches / 36.83 cm
Length: 60 inches / 152.4 cm

US$18.00 per piece

Item Details and Description

Fabric History/Pedigree: 1960's fabric from kimono pieces from an Arai Hari (special Japanese kimono cleaner -- see info on Arai-Hari HERE from John Marshall, expert on Japanese textiles .)

This is a special delicate lightweight Ohshima tsumugi silk from Amami Islands, Japan. Details on this part of Japan's special pongee silk-making process can be found on the National Foundation for Promoting the National Costume of Japan website, which explains the natural plant dyes and mud etc. used in making Ohshima Tsumugi, quoted here:

Characteristics: A plain woven silk fabric with pre-dyed scoured threads both for warp and weft. The color is refined and calm and the fabric is soft and difficult to wrinkle. Threads are dyed with plant dyes such as "Techiki" (Raphilolepis umbellata) and indigo (Persicaria tinctoria) with a technique, peculiar only to "Oshima Tsumugi," called "Ori Jime." As a variety, an additional treatment is made to the dyed thread by dipping them in muddy water. It is "Doro(mud) Zome(dyeing)." There are several kinds of "Oshima Tsumugi":"Doro Oshima," "Ai(indigo) Oshima," "Doro Ai Oshima," "Iro(color) Oshima" and "Natsu(summer) Oshima."

Fabric Description Details:

Thin fabric, translucent Oshima Tsumugi silk with design the same on both sides; Background color is black, but most of the background is rendered in dark gray & black pixelated areas; Patterns are most unusual, having a rather Western (Modern) abstractionist look; geometric design has both rectangular & square figures as well as oblique figures, all melding into a puzzle-like appearance when viewed in full; There are also large pairs of overlapping rectangles (each rectangle shape being 3.5" X 6"/ 8.89cm X15.24cm), that have within them some very stylized images: flower, streams. perhaps clouds or other interpretations; Other colors used: burgundy-red and yellow; (please see closeups); selvage on both sides is 3/8 inch (9.53mm) fabric slightly stiff, little drape.

Colors: Please use our text color descriptions to complement your sense of the fabric due to differences in contrast and color on different devices.

Condition: EXCELLENT,

Popular with our antique Japanese textile aficionados and collectors.