Tsutsugaki Textile
Tsutsugaki is a style of textile made from cotton cloth and resist dyed with indigo. Tsutsugaki translates to "tube drawing," as the rice paste is drawn on with a sort of piping bag to create the light spaces left behind after the fabric is dyed with indigo. Additional colors, like the red on this piece, are sometimes added after the resist-dye process has been finished.
- Object: Tsutsugaki Textile
- Artist: unknown
- Circa: unknown
- Dimensions: 35" x 38"
- Culture Area: Japan
- Cultural Group: -
- Cultural Context: Tsutsugaki is a Japanese technique of resist dyeing that involves drawing rice-paste designs on cloth, dyeing the cloth, and then washing off the paste. The rice paste is typically made from sweet rice, which has a high starch content and is therefore rather sticky. The paste is applied through a tube (the tsutsu) similar to the tubes which are used by bakers to decorate cakes. A related process is to apply the paste through a stencil; that is called katazome. The cloth is typically cotton, and the dye is typically indigo, so the design is usually white on blue. -craftatlas
- Donor: Cathy Prince
- Catalog #: 2025.12.1