ジョンの手まり

WISTERIA PROJECT – The Designs.

25th March 2025

There are 13 ‘Shibaraku’ designs that I can find in the Japanese books. Of all these designs, ‘Aoi Bara’ is unique in the way in which the motif is repeated ‘bara’ style, offsetting the motif by 45 degrees. It should be noted that the ‘reflected’ variation can also be considered as ‘bara’ style as the second motif is offset by 90 degrees. It’s also one of the few that is stitched on an S8, not C8, division, although this division is common to most of the designs in which the stitches cross the equator. This is definitely one of the temari I’ll be stitching although the instructions miss out where the ‘middle’ points (6,7,8 and 9 on he previous diagram) are positioned on the jiwari (about a third along?). I’m also intrigued to find out how the obi fits in between (or over?) the ‘Shibaraku’ stitches. So, I’ll put this design to one side while I consider the other twelve.

There are two different variations: nine of what I’ll call the standard design, and three of the reflected, or rotated, variation. The standard design is exemplified by the temari in Furosato no Temari Nos. 5 and 150. In these temari the six points of the motif are the same length, roughly, and all end close to the equator of the C8 division mari so that there are only 2 designs on the ball at the poles. The design is constrained by the number of rows that can be fitted into the space between the centre stitches (4 & 8) and the thread intersections on the same short guidelines as the centre stitches. Temari for 12 Months Vol 2, p.10, Hometown Temari Vol 2, p.12, and Sanuki (2016) p.26 are all very similar and vary only in their degree of fullness. Only one of the temari confines the design to the 8-part squares of the C8 (Furosato no temari No.174).

There are two different variations: nine of what I’ll call the standard design, and three of the reflected, or rotated, variation. The standard design is exemplified by the temari in Furosato no Temari Nos. 5 and 150. In these temari the six points of the motif are the same length, roughly, and all end close to the equator of the C8 division mari so that there are only 2 designs on the ball at the poles. The design is constrained by the number of rows that can be fitted into the space between the centre stitches (4 & 8) and the thread intersections on the same short guidelines as the centre stitches. Temari for 12 Months Vol 2, p.10, Hometown Temari Vol 2, p.12, and Sanuki (2016) p.26 are all very similar and vary only in their degree of fullness. Only one of the temari confines the design to the 8-part squares of the C8 (Furosato no temari No.174).

The other three temari, plus the design around the equator of Hometown Temari Vol 2 p.12, have points at different lengths. My first ‘Shibaraku’ from Cosmo 3 has short middle points (2 & 6) whereas the motif around the equator of Hometown Temari Vol 2 has much longer middle points that are stitched on the equator. The remaining two, stitched on simple divisions, are the temari in Fun with Temari, p.32 and, Furosato no Temari, No. 55. The odd points (1,3,5 & 7) cross the equator: in the former the poles are connected ‘jyouge douji’ style at the equator whereas in No.55 the two designs at the poles are offset by 45 degrees and the points start at the equator so that the designs overlap.

And then there is the reflected version of the design in Dream Temari p.36, Kii Temari p.19, and Hometown Temari Vol. 1, p.9. These designs are very similar (Dream and Hometown are almost identical) and differ only in their support elements.

So, before experimenting with these designs, I’m going to stitch some of these examples. I’ll start with ‘Hana Kenbishi’ but rather than a C8, I’ll stitch it on an S8 so I need only stitch two designs. At one pole I’ll have a 2 colour design, and the other a single graded colour (with an obi in-between). ‘Aoi Bara’ I’ll repeat, but with a thicker thread to make the work quicker. And, then I’ll work a standard design, perhaps the one from Hometown Temare Vol 2. Once I’ve got the hang of this hitohudegake design with these three, I’ll consider what else might be done with it, such as:
Work ‘Aoi Bara’ with the double reflected path of ‘Hana Kenbishi’.
Make the outer points longer on ‘Hana Kenbishi’ so that they layer or interlock on a C8 division.

WISTERIA PROJECT – Introduction.

17th March 2025

When a new temari book arrives, I always mark the pages that have temari that I’m attracted to by colour, design, cleverness in technique, etc… (with archival stickers, not a Sharpie). The temari I really like I copy and put in my ‘Future Projects’ file. And, if I really, really like the temari it will become a line on a ‘Temari to Make’ spreadsheet.

There are two temari that I’ve wanted to work for some while, and which have attracted me for different reasons.

The first, which made it to the 'Future Projects' file, is from Harmony 2, p. 36 and is entitled ‘Hana Kenbishi’ (Diamond Sword Flower). This attracted me because of the unusual Hitohudegake stitching path. I was so intrigued by the design that I sketched out the pathway.

The second, which made it all the way to a line on a spreadsheet, is ‘Aoi Bara’ (Blue Roses) from Kii Temari, p.19. I’ve always liked the result of the ‘bara’ technique and I particularly liked the way in which the blue was graded in this design.

However, I was surprised that both temari share the same Hitohudegake stitch path, though in different ways. As can be seen from my diagram of ‘Hana Kenbishi’, one path is completed, and then, as a next row, the mirror-image path is stitched. In Harmony 2 the first row is stitched in yellow and the second in brown. However, both rows could be seen as a single Hitohudegake row which crosses itself halfway through.

‘Aoi Bara’, on the other hand, uses just one of these paths and on an S8 uses the long outer points to cross the equator, so that the design is stitched at both poles simultaneously as an all-over Hitohudegake design. And then this path is repeated at 45 degrees, bara style.

And so I thought that this project would be an exploration of these two similar but different designs. It was when I was scanning the photograph of ‘Aoi Bara’ that I noticed that there was a temari very similar to ‘Hana Kenbishi’ in the opposite corner.It is entitled ‘Variation of Shibaraku and Rose Triangles’ from Kii Temari, p. 19

So these temari are all variations of ‘Variation of Shibaraku’, one of the first temari I made, and the first I made from the photograph alone as there were no instructions given in Cosmo 3.

When I was stitching this temari, I studied the design by comparing it with others that I found in the books, and wrote a set of notes with diagrams. So I’ll end this piece with photographs of all the temari with this or a similar design from the Japanese books, and in the next piece I’ll compare and contrast them.

Furosato no Temari No. 5

Furosato no Temari No. 55

Furosato no Temari No. 150

Furosato no Temari No. 174

Fun with Temari p. 32

Hometown Temari Vol.1 p.9

Hometown Temari Vol 2. p. 12

Sanuki Temari (2010) p. 26

Temari for 12 months Vol 2, p. 10