nizuri (vest), unknown maker from Japan

Exhibition Label:
“Flowers, Dragons and Pine Trees: Asian Textiles in the Spencer Museum of Art,” Nov-2005, Mary Dusenbury
The isolated To-hoku district of northern Honshu had several distinctive garment types including the nizuri or woman’s wood-hauling vest. The dense, counted-thread patterning added warmth, strength and beauty to a garment subject to much hard use.

Archive Label 2003:
In many parts of Japan, vulnerable parts of a garment were covered with heavy cotton stitching to strengthen the fabric and prolong its life. In Tohoku, a general term for the cold and mountainous region of northern Japan, this stitching became a highly developed form of artistic expression. Sashiko was generally executed with white cotton thread on deep indigo hemp or cotton fabric. The all-over nesting diamonds that strengthen and decorate the body of this vest are typical of the Tsuruoka district.

Tohoku had several distinctive garment shapes as well as stitching patterns. The nizuri is an unshaped vest that was used to protect a woman's back from the heavy wooden frame that she used to carry firewood down from the mountains. Although it was designed as a utilitarian garment, beautifully stitched nizuri often formed part of a bride's dowry.