Maiwai Festival Coat for Fisherman with Maritime Motif Japanese Art

Hand sewn Maiwai big catch coat for festival and celebration. Features motifs of water, net full of fish, rope, and waves. Done in a tsutstugaki free hand and katazome stencil, resist dye technique.  Maiwai are ceremonial coats unique to the Bōsō peninsula fishing villages in Chiba Prefecture, east of Tokyo. Made to celebrate an extraordinary catch.

The red crest at the upper back of the robe is the symbol of the fishermen’s association. A shimenawa, a twisted straw rope used to mark the boundary of a sacred space is the main motif.