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Antique Doro Oshima Tsumugi kimono w/ woven sayagata, blue-grey and black

£100.00 £55.00

Antique Doro Oshima Tsumugi kimono w/ woven sayagata in blue-grey and black.

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Description

Antique Doro Oshima Tsumugi kimono w/ woven sayagata, blue-grey and black

A beautiful antique kimono in a rich supple Doro Oshima tsumugi silk. The pattern woven in is both bold in size, and subtle in colour. I really love this one.

It measures 159.5 cm long, the wingspan is 66 cm, and the sleeve drop is 49 cm, so it is a roomy kimono.

In order to be referred to as authentic Ōshima Tsumugi weaving, the fabric must meet the following four conditions.

1. It Must Be Made in Amami Oshima

In order to be called Ōshima Tsumugi weaving, the fabric must have been made in Amami Oshima.

2. The Color Must Have Been Made through Dorosome Dyeing

To begin with, this technique requires the threads themselves to be individually dyed before being woven into textiles with different patterns or illustrations. The threads to be woven into these incredible fabrics are dyed using a technique that has been passed down for generations in Amamiōshima. Dorosome or mud-dyeing, is an all natural fabric dyeing technique that can only be found in Amami Oshima; it is not possible anywhere else in the world.

Using the yeddo hawthorn trees (called te-chi in Amami Oshima), a red dye is first extracted from the wood and the silk threads are saturated in it. When these red threads are mixed with the iron-rich mud,a chemical reaction takes place and turns the silk black.

3. The Threads Must Be 100% Silk

Authentic Ōshima Tsumugi textiles are only made with pure silk, making them both high quality and high class fabrics.

All over the world, there are many different varieties of textiles; some of the most well-known are France’s Gobelins tapestry, Persian carpets and Ōshima Tsumugi textiles. With a history spanning 1300 years, Ōshima Tsumugi textiles are considered to be fabrics of the finest quality on an international scale.

4. The Fabric Must be a Plain Weave

Plain weaving refers to weaving where the vertical and horizontal threads are woven alternatively (one over the other). Though this is a common technique, what sets it apart in Ōshima Tsumugi weaving is the minute nature of the silk threads. This fabric requires a highly skilled technique to make it accurately, but when done so, it is a particularly light and sturdy fabric.

After already undergoing this lengthy process under expert hands, finally the quality of the design or pattern of the Ōshima Tsumugi weaving further adds to the impeccable quality of the overall fabric.

• Sayagata:  the manji is often found as part of a repeating pattern. One common pattern, called sayagata in Japanese, is made of of interlocking manji, left- and right-facing manji joined by lines. As the negative space between the lines has a distinctive shape, the sayagata pattern is sometimes called the “key fret” motif in English.

Additional information

Weight 1.2 kg