Horizontal stripes

横縞 yoko-jima

Even stripes run across the furoshiki. Because most wraps sit the furoshiki diagonally, the stripes show slanting across the parcel.

Stripes from 16th-century imported fabric; Edo period

The Japanese word for stripes, shima, comes from shima-mono, 'island goods': striped fabric brought by Nanban trade from Southeast Asian islands in the mid-16th century. Before that, stripes were called suji or kandō. Early Edo stripes were mostly horizontal, since coloured weft could be added while weaving, and many Edo furoshiki were cut from striped cotton.