Cotton Placemat by Kajiku Bingata Kobo

These placemats were made at the Kajiku bingata studio.

Bingata is a form of stencil dye with resonance in the history of Okinawa. Once an independent kingdom in Asia, the Ryukyu islands received influence and colour palette from many sources. From Japan, China, South east Asia, India and elsewhere through trade. The bingata dye style is dated to this period of Ryukyu aesthetic freedom, and the tradition that then survived.

Often with colourful motifs depicting nature, these examples of bingata were made at the studio of Osamu Kajiku, and have more simple patterned forms. Kajiku however, uses the traditional process of resist dye with stencils to generate his colours - and the mix of yellows, reds and blues is unmistakably Okinawan.

These placemats are dyed onto cotton, and are 22cm by 30cm. They weigh 58g. As each is hand made, there are differences between them.