A Length of Arimatsu Shibori: Irregular Stripes

ca. early to mid twentieth century 54" x 13", 137 cm x 33 cm  This is a lovely length of hand dyed, indigo cotton shibori, which was most likely produced in the Narumi/Arimatsu area of Japan, where so much of Japan's shibori production took place--and which is still very much associated with the art of shibori. The vertically oriented, variegated blue-on-white striated pattern may be a machine-aided technique called Matsubun suji; this streaked shibori pattern is punctuated by intermittent, vertical stripes of deep-colored indigo.  The cotton base cloth seems power loomed, but has a nice, medium-weight texture. There is a soft cloud of indigo on the length, and, as this piece was taken from a yukata, or an unlined, casual, summer kimono, and, as such, there are some ingrained creases which may be permanently set into this cloth.   Gorgeous shibori.