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all japanese import fabric

In this section the store gathered fabrics imported from Japan. The assortment ranged across miniature scenes, animals, nursery motifs, florals, geometric patterns, coated surfaces, double gauze, stripes, checks, and conversational prints in many colorways.
Representative motifs and colorways
- storybook figures in grey, natural, and pink
- alphabet nesting figures in four colors
- anchor patterns in blue, pink, and red
- animal dolls and nursery scenes
- apple party colorways
- arctic scenes in dark blue, natural, pink, turquoise, and yellow
- Asian dessert motifs
- strawflower prints
- crowd scenes in blue, violet, and yellow
- baby frogs and pigs
- ballerina prints and coated variants
- balloon-sky double gauze
- birds, balloons, and bouquets
- biscuit-blue sky scenes
- sheep and pastoral motifs
- boots and flowers
- birdcages
- butterfly coated fabrics
- button-shop prints
- cat alphabets
- carousel-horse coated fabrics
- trains and construction vehicles
- clover fields
- counting prints
- country village stripes
- daisy fields
- forest ferns
- deer and bunny stripes
- dinosaur marches
- doily wreaths
- double-gauze checks
- fruit, floral, and kitchen novelties
A category built by overlap
Many of these fabrics also belonged to other departments. A dot could appear under dots, a child-oriented scene under children, a floral under florals, or a coated surface under upholstery and vinyl. “All Japanese import fabric” functioned as a second route through the same catalog, organized by source rather than subject.
Small swatches and linked names continued through hundreds of entries. Early groups emphasized storybook figures, town scenes, apples, automobile prints, and small animal motifs; later groups repeated familiar subjects across several grounds and materials.
Half-yard labels appeared throughout this section, and the catalog distinguished standard cottons from double gauze and vinyl-coated variants when their names called for it. Repeated colorways made it possible to compare one subject across natural, pink, blue, green, yellow, red, and darker grounds.
Catalog boundaries
No current origin, availability, manufacturer, price, fiber, or width should be inferred from a name alone. Individual pages such as Kei Temari — orange include specifications supplied by their catalog listings. The broader fabrics page presents the store's full category map.