Patchwork

寄せ裂 yose-gire

Blocks of different small patterns sit side by side as if pieced from scraps. Each wrap shows a different mix of blocks depending on which faces land on top.

Patchwork of precious fabrics; tea culture and folk reuse

Yose-gire, 'gathered pieces', recalls the Japanese habit of saving and piecing fabric: Buddhist kesa robes were sewn from donated scraps, and from the Muromachi period tea practitioners treasured fragments of imported Chinese silks (meibutsu-gire), mounting samples in albums. Scraps were also pieced into everyday covers and bags. A yose-gire furoshiki prints the look of such piecing as one design.