potd - Shipping Poster

I'm researching some old prints and posters before I put them in the shop. This is an old Mitsubishi shipping agent's wood block printed  poster  that I think  dates from between 1873 (when the Mitsubishi name was adopted) and 1885 (when it merged with another company to become the NYK line) . The red panel shows  the names of all their ships.  Prints in this period had become very bright as new inks were introduced from the west. This red (or even brighter) is typical of Meiji  period prints of the late 19th century.

In store - some recent additions

I've had trouble keeping up with the blog  over the summer but now the kids are back at school and Takashi's gone back to Japan for a while I should be able to post more regularly.  Today I'm  posting some recent additions to the shop...

First are two panels of old Iyo-gasuri which is kasuri  from Matsuyama city, very near to where we have our Japanese home in Ehime prefecture on Shikoku.  Iyo is the old name for Ehime. I'm sure I'll write more about kasuri in the future. Basically it  is Japanese ikat where the warp and/or weft threads are tie-dyed before weaving. Where undyed sections of warp and weft thread meets the pattern will be white. The lighter blue/grey colour is created where only the weft threads are undyed. These pieces are e-gasuri or 'picture kasuri'. The one on the left is a koi carp and on the right is a Daruma with a butterfly, toy drum and pine tree.  These panels would orginally have been parts of futon covers and probably date from the early 20th century.

Next are some very simple but interesting old wooden print blocks. I can't tell you much about them I'm afraid, even whether they were used on fabric or some sort of paper (possibly fusuma screen doors?) but they have a nice humble character and  we have a basket of them.

This is part of a wonderful  old ranru or boro  patched futon cover. I couldn't fit the whole thing in the picture. Please have a look at my earlier post on boro for more information.

And finally, I've put out quite a lot more obi of various ages, styles, sizes, fibres, textures and condition.