雀
THE MEANINGS WOVEN IN
suzume
A wish to stay close to the ones you love, through the cold days too.
Sparrow
Bonds that hold →01
Where it comes from
Suzume, the sparrow, lives close to people, and in patterns it is most often paired with bamboo, or with ears of rice. Two sparrows facing each other with outspread feathers form suzumegata, once explained as a pair of birds bound by deep feeling. Murasuzume scatters little flocks in flight across the cloth, and fukura-suzume shows a plump sparrow from the front, its feathers puffed against the cold. Even little birds singing in the fields have been drawn as notes of happiness in this life.
02
On the cloth
Sparrows with bamboo have been woven into round obi, sometimes hinting at an old folk tale about a sparrow. So many two-sparrow forms were painted on the backs of folding screens that the screens themselves came to be called suzumegata. The name fukura-suzume also lives on in a way of tying the obi for young women.
03
To give
Sparrows suit a gift for someone close, a couple settling into their days together, or the start of winter. It is for someone you hope will stay warm and near, through plain and happy days.
A word to keep
脹ら雀
fukura-suzume
A sparrow puffed round against the cold. Also the name of a way of tying the obi.
Two questions
What does the Sparrow (雀) pattern mean?
A wish to stay close to the ones you love, through the cold days too. Sparrows suit a gift for someone close, a couple settling into their days together, or the start of winter.
Where does the 雀 pattern come from?
Suzume, the sparrow, lives close to people, and in patterns it is most often paired with bamboo, or with ears of rice. Two sparrows facing each other with outspread feathers form suzumegata, once explained as a pair of birds bound by deep feeling.
