Larger moon bag with moons on both sides. Appliqued, hand stitched and machine stitched. Cotton and silk exterior fabrics with vintage linen base fabric. Each has two interior pockets. Snap closure opens wide. Indigo dyed. Size-7” x 8”. Two variations available (ONE & TWO), back side moon is the same on both.
Each has a vintage karuta talisman attached . Karuta is a Japanese card game and these are from an early version classified as ita-karuta which are made of wood with poetry written on them. In ita-karuta, 100 waka poems are written on two sets of 100 cards: one set is yomifuda ( "reading cards"), which have the complete poem taken from the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu, and the other is torifuda ( "grabbing cards"), which each correspond to a yomifuda and have only the last few lines of the corresponding poem on them. One person is chosen to be the reader. As the reader reads a yomifuda, the players race to find its associated torifuda before anybody else does. This game has traditionally been played on New Year's Day since 1904.
I had purchased a number of these from my friend Carola Pfau over the years and when she passed she had her remaining pieces sent to me. The linen used in the bags also came from Carola’s textile collection.
Straps are linen/cotton blend and woven in Japan and dyed here.
The two shown here have sold but choose custom and I will make one for you!