Cloth: ramie; tsutsugaki (freehand resist)expand_more
The John R. Van Derlip Fund and the Mary Griggs Burke Endowment Fund established by the Mary Livingston Griggs and Mary Griggs Burke Foundation; purchase from the Thomas Murray Collectionexpand_more 2019.20.186
This wrapping cloth, or uchikui, is made up of two symmetrical panels of heavy-grade, plain-weave ramie. The panels are not identical because an artist created the design by hand using the paste-resist dyeing technique called tsutsugaki: motifs were made by squeezing sticky paste out of a tube, like icing a cake. Until 1879, government sumptuary laws regulated the use of colors and yellow ground, reserving them for the royal family; hence this piece likely postdates that year. The small size of this uchikui suggests it would have been used for gift presentation, and the use of a bright color indicates a festive occasion, like a wedding. Irises in a flowing stream is a motif borrowed from mainland Japan.
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