7207: 1960's Japanese Pongee Silk Ohshima Tsumugi,55 inches Arai-Hari

Rare Japanese Textiles:

1960's Ohshima Tsumugi (Pongee) Silk Fabric
Arai-Hari
Geometric Grid

Catalog# 7207

Width:14.25 inches / 36.2 cm
Length: 55 inches / 139.8 cm

List Price: US$18.00 per piece
Sale Price: US$9.00

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:

This thin fabric is a translucent Oshima Tsumugi silk with designs the same on both sides; Background color is dark navy blue(almost black), but most of the background is rendered in geometric shapes (squares, rectangles, rhombic), largest is 1 inch(2.54cm) at longest, and smaller shapes being .75 inch ((19.05mm) at longest; these shapes are symmetrically aligned in a tile-like pattern that is rendered in diagonal symmetry; please view close-ups.

Other colors: dark colonial blue to gray and slightly lighter hue of blue-gray; 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.