7068: 1990's Japanese Pongee Silk Ohshima Tsumugi,53 inches

7068:1990s Ohshima Tsumugi Silk,longView

Traditional Japanese Textiles:

Deadstock 1990's Ohshima Tsumugi (Pongee) Silk Fabric

Catalog# 7068

Width:15.75 inches / 40.01 cm
Length: 53 inches / 134.62 cm

US$15.00 per piece

Item Details and Description

Fabric History/Pedigree: This is deadstock, an unused roll of silk, a 1990's fabric from kimono pieces from deadstock rolls. This is a light-weight Ohshima tsumugi silk from Amami Island, 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:

Lightweight, slightly translucent Tsumugi silk with designs the same on both sides: Stripes of gradually different widths, running lengthwise; Fabric is black and the stripes are a burnished type red. Ohshima that we find from this period (the 1990s onward) sometimes come in less complex designs etc. and do not look anything like most of the Ohshima tsumugi silks that we offer -- mostly from the 1950s-1980s -- due to their simplicity.

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.