Piece
Not on view
Judging from the traces of a rounded corner and former fold across the center of this textile, it may once have been a sleeve. A piece of this cloth in the National Museum of Japanese History, Sakura, bears an inscription with a date corresponding to 1710 that associates the cloth with a woman. It is rare for a stencil-dyed textile to be securely dated, especially with such a comparatively early date. A stencil was probably used to apply resist paste before this textile was dyed with indigo. Touches of darker indigo enhance the pattern here and there.
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