Edo Sarasa: Flowers and Birds in Turquoise and Yellow-Green Gama-guchi Pouch — product view
Turquoise and yellow-green Edo Sarasa silk pouch visible inside an open handbag in soft daylight.
Turquoise and yellow-green Edo Sarasa pouch resting visibly on folded clothing inside an open suitcase.
Turquoise Edo Sarasa silk pouch presented alone on linen beside a blank gift note.
Close indoor view of the turquoise flower-and-bird Edo Sarasa pattern across the gathered silk pouch.
Edo Sarasa: Flowers and Birds in Turquoise and Yellow-Green Gama-guchi Pouch — product view
Turquoise and yellow-green Edo Sarasa silk pouch visible inside an open handbag in soft daylight.
Turquoise and yellow-green Edo Sarasa pouch resting visibly on folded clothing inside an open suitcase.
Turquoise Edo Sarasa silk pouch presented alone on linen beside a blank gift note.
Close indoor view of the turquoise flower-and-bird Edo Sarasa pattern across the gathered silk pouch.
Somenosato Ochiai, General Incorporated Association SKU: BJ_P_00018

Edo Sarasa: Flowers and Birds in Turquoise and Yellow-Green Gama‑guchi Pouch

Price
Regular price ¥18,330
Regular price Sale price ¥18,330
Save ¥-18,330
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Product Details

PRODUCT DETAILS

A Small Pouch, Composed in Layered Color

Small enough to live among daily essentials, this silk tsumugi pouch turns Edo Sarasa into an intimate object of color. A turquoise field, yellow-green side panels, flowers, birds, and the rounded metal frame meet in a compact form that rewards close looking each time it is opened, placed, or carried.

USE & APPRECIATION

Inside a Handbag

Before putting the pouch into your handbag, enjoy it for a moment at the dressing table. Turquoise flowers and birds meet yellow-green side panels, giving the compact silk form a lively contrast. Pair it with plain accessories so the textile remains the detail you notice first.

Turquoise and yellow-green Edo Sarasa silk pouch visible inside an open handbag in soft daylight.

Travel, Contained Within Luggage

When packing indoors, place the pouch among clean, dry clothing before closing your luggage. Its turquoise pattern and yellow-green sides make a distinct visual accent against neutral fabrics. Keep it protected from spills and enjoy rediscovering the familiar textile when you settle into your room.

Turquoise and yellow-green Edo Sarasa pouch resting visibly on folded clothing inside an open suitcase.

A Considered Gift

Choose a gift for someone who enjoys color in useful small objects. Birds and flowers spread across turquoise silk, with yellow-green sides adding a second note as the pouch is turned. Present it simply and let the recipient discover the layered pattern in their own daily routine.

Turquoise Edo Sarasa silk pouch presented alone on linen beside a blank gift note.

A Textile Artwork in Miniature

Between uses, set the pouch on a clean shelf as a small textile accent. Against plain wood, its patterned front and bright side panels become easier to appreciate together. Leave room around the rounded form and enjoy choosing a new angle each time you put it down.

Close indoor view of the turquoise flower-and-bird Edo Sarasa pattern across the gathered silk pouch.

OBJECT PASSPORT / CARE & USE

Care & Handling

Care graphic stating that laundering, ironing, and outdoor use are not permitted for the Edo Sarasa silk tsumugi pouch.

Laundering, ironing, and outdoor use are not permitted.

OBJECT PASSPORT

Product details

Dimensions
9 cm / Horizontal width 14 cm / Vertical width 10 cm
Material
100% silk (tsumugi)
Product weight
70 g
Origin
Japan
Craft Heritage

CRAFT HERITAGE

Craft Heritage

Sarasa originated in India more than 3,000 years ago and spread across Asia and Europe, developing in ways that reflected the cultures of each region. It is believed to have reached Japan during the Muromachi and Momoyama periods, between the 14th and 16th centuries.

Edo Sarasa emerged from the middle to the late Edo period. By the closing years of the period, stencil-printing specialists had established a distinctly Japanese form of sarasa that became widely known.

Its designs often stylize flowers, plants, birds, animals, and human figures, combining an exotic visual character with the climate and aesthetic sensibilities of Japan. Depending on the design, artisans layer color through approximately 20 stencils, or as many as 90 for more intricate patterns.

Subtle shading, softly blended effects, delicate tonal gradations, and a subdued palette shaped by Tokyo's water are defining characteristics of the craft.
How It’s Made

TRADITIONAL CRAFT PROCESS

How It’s Made

About the Making Process

Edo Sarasa is created by layering multiple stencils and colors by hand to form patterns on cotton or silk.
Even a relatively simple design may require 20 to 30 stencils, while an intricate pattern may use as many as 90.
The artisan plans the palette around the fabric's ground color and the customer's order, then mixes the dyes with careful attention to how the colors will appear when layered.

1. Making the Stencils
  • Sheets of handmade washi are laminated with persimmon tannin to form traditional stencil paper.
  • The design is cut into the prepared paper to create the stencils.
2. Planning the Ground Color and Palette
  • The artisan considers the fabric's ground color and the customer's order when selecting the colors for the pattern.
  • The full palette is planned with careful attention to the appearance of overlapping colors.
3. Dyeing the Ground Color
  • Cotton or silk fabric is given its ground color using hikizome, a method of applying dye across the fabric with a brush.
  • This establishes the overall color of the cloth before the patterned colors are applied.
4. Preparing the Printing Paste and Dyes
  • A printing paste is prepared from glutinous rice flour, rice bran, salt, and other ingredients for use in stencil dyeing.
  • The dyes are mixed with careful consideration of how each color will appear when layered with the others.
5. Hand Stencil Dyeing
  • Each stencil is positioned on the fabric, and color is rubbed through it by hand with a brush.
  • Depending on the design, approximately 20 to 90 stencils are carefully aligned and used in succession to build the pattern.
  • The artisan adjusts the pressure and movement of the brush to create subtle shading, softly blended effects, and delicate tonal gradations.
Meet the Maker

MEET THE MAKER

Meet the Maker

MAKER · OCHIAI, TOKYO

A Dyeing Culture Carried by a Community

Some-no-Sato Ochiai preserves more than finished textiles. It carries forward the knowledge of how designs are drawn, stencils are cut, color is judged, cloth is stretched, and skill is passed from one person to another.

A person in a blue kimono standing beneath a timber gate at Some-no-Sato Ochiai.
Yoko Takaichi, Representative Director and Cultural Steward

Yoko Takaichi’s path into this world began through the neighborhood itself. Raised close to kimono through her mother, who worked in tailoring, she later created a local community publication while raising her family. A visit to the dye house Futabaen led to her involvement with Some-no-Komichi, a community project created to make Ochiai’s nearly hidden dyeing culture visible again. In 2015, she served as the project’s representative. She now leads Some-no-Sato Ochiai as its representative director.

Her role is to hold together the workshop’s cultural purpose, its relationship with the neighborhood, and the work of the dyeing craftspeople. The workshop’s craftspeople carry out the dyeing, while Takaichi connects their work with the wider community as its representative.

A Century of Dyeing in Ochiai

The workshop traces its lineage to Futabaya, established in Ochiai in 1920. The district had become a center for dyeing as makers moved upstream in search of cleaner water along the Kanda and Myoshoji rivers. At its height, the area was home to more than 300 dye-related businesses; lengths of cloth being rinsed in the river were once part of the neighborhood’s everyday landscape.

That industrial landscape has become far smaller, but the work continues. Some-no-Sato Ochiai was established to carry the century-old workshop heritage forward, train people, share the culture, and keep hand processes present in the city where they developed.

Why the Hand Still Matters

Edo dyeing is a sequence of judgments. A design is translated into stencils; cloth is fixed evenly to a long printing board; paste and color must be applied with control; each layer must meet the last. A single Edo Sarasa design may require dozens of stencils, while especially complex work can require hundreds. In the coloring room, recipes handed down over time are not simply repeated: craftspeople continue to adjust and develop color by eye and by experience.

These hand processes create the rhythm of pattern and depth of color associated with Edo dyeing. The judgment of craftspeople working with stencils, paste, and dye shapes its expressive character.
Shipping Information

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