#tsutsugaki

[notwiselybuttoowell]

Japanese hikeshibanten jacket depicting spider and go board, 19th Century, Seattle Art Museum

[jareckiworld]

Shoichi Tsurukawa — Nature Along with Forest Lives (paste, sirius dyes, cotton on panel, 2019)

[beyourselfchulanmaria]

一件 19 世紀的日本消防員外套，上面裝飾著一隻盤旋在廢棄圍棋棋盤上的蜘蛛。 A 19th century Japanese Firemen’s coat decorated with a spider hovering over an abandoned Go board.

-from "Museum Of Artifacts"history blog-

an early-nineteenth-century firefighter’s coat, called hikeshibanten, since it features a spooky spider. Made in the Edo period in Japan, these firefighter’s coats were reversible, and this design is actually on the interior of the jacket, only visible when the jacket has been turned inside out. A large spider—with an endearing face—looms over the shoulder of the jacket, where it hovers menacingly over an abandoned go board (Pacific Northwesterners may have unnerving flashbacks to the giant house spiders that descend on Seattle in the autumn). The range of tonalities centers on indigo, white, black, and greyish-brown, with red accents on the fan; this color palette visually unites the work, creating parallels between the spider’s eyes and the go pieces.

The method of dyeing used, tsutsugaki, is a type of resist dyeing. The design was drawn on the cotton using rice paste, and these initial lines are visible now as the lightest areas of the design. The spider and the go board were dyed their respective colors, and covered with more rice paste to block any other dye from entering the area. Then the fabric was dipped into indigo multiple times, dried, soaked in hot water again, and the rice paste was scraped off to reveal the layering of colors; this whole process could take 20 days.

The scene is from the story of the warrior-hero Minamoto no Yorimitsu (948–1021) who, once when sick, was visited by an evil priest in the guise of a giant spider. Yorimitsu saw through the disguise and attacked the spider priest, and his four attendants (who were playing a game of Go while guarding him) leapt up to track the intruder back to his den.

[tofuist]

熨斗菊橘文様夜具地〈のしきくたちばなもんようやぐじ〉 木綿、筒描　軸装　江戸～明治時代〔日本〕 19世紀

[redscharlach]

A late 19th/early 20th-century Japanese door curtain (noren) with resist-dyed octopus motif. [x]

But my question is really: best octopus face or BEST OCTOPUS FACE?

[tanuki-kimono]

Antique cotton kimono with waves rabbits (=foam) made using tsutsugaki technique (seen on)

[jareckiworld]

Shoichi Tsurukawa — Colored Tree Buds III (cotton art cross, paste, sirius dyes, cotton on panel, 2017)

[jareckiworld]

Shoichi Tsurukawa — Anima and Animus (art cross, paste, sirius dyes on cotton panel, 2018)