A reverse, held in view.
Functional and decorative in one field.
The source photograph records the reverse of an indigo-dyed Japanese quilt, described as boro, with sashiko used for both function and decoration.
Its layered surface brings the construction of the textile into view. Pale stitches travel across the indigo patches instead of disappearing into them.
The photograph was made in 2020. That is a photograph date, not a date for the textile.
Read the surface.
The image is explicitly a view of the reverse, keeping the construction-facing side of the quilt in focus.
Pale stitch paths cross the indigo surface and make the joined layers legible.
The description names sashiko as both functional and decorative; that distinction comes from the source record.
Close reading of the credited photograph. The description and licence follow the linked source record.
Maker & source.
- Maker
- Maker unrecorded
- Place / date
- Japan
- Source description
- Reverse of an indigo-dyed quilt (boro) from Japan, with functional and decorative sashiko.Wikimedia Commons file description
- Technique
- Sashiko is identified in the source as functional and decorative.Wikimedia Commons file description
- Image licence
- Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International.Licence record
- Collection
- Östasiatiska museet. Statens museer för världskultur
- Accession
- OM-2009-0009
- Publication
- Photograph by Karl Zetterström, Statens museer för världskultur, licensed CC BY 4.0. No crop or object date is supplied here.