Home > fabrics > japanese imports > all · historical

all japanese import fabric

Anonymous textile swatches arranged to show varied imported-fabric motif families
Anonymous swatches showing varied imported-fabric motif families.

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

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.