The Thousand Stitches (Sennin-bari)

Sennin-bari were protective cloth belts stitched by one thousand women and given to soldiers before deployment, a wartime custom that intensified during the conflicts of the 1930s and 1940s. Each contributor added a single stitch, and the resulting garment was believed to shield the wearer from harm. This print's Figures and Daily Life subjects suggest a street or public-space scene in which a woman solicits stitches from passersby — a quiet act of collective ritual set against an urban or residential backdrop. Sengai's career overlapped directly with the period of this practice's peak, and as a trained illustrator he would have observed and documented such scenes firsthand. The composition likely conveys the domestic and communal dimensions of wartime mobilization, rendered through the restrained palette and precise figure drawing characteristic of his woodblock work.