Two Runners in One
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In Japanese aesthetics there is a concept called ura-omote — the hidden face and the visible face. Everything has both. The kimono's lining is as considered as its exterior. The back of a screen painting is prepared with the same care as its front. The inside of a tea bowl is glazed with as much attention as the surface you drink from.
The Aki-No-Mori runner was made with this principle as its organising logic. It is a fully reversible piece — both faces woven from vintage ceremonial silk, each carrying its own complete composition, each capable of standing as the primary surface. Turn it over and the runner does not reveal an underside. It reveals another piece entirely.
The Aki-No-Mori draws from autumn obi silk: deep chrysanthemum golds, the particular warm brown of kuri (chestnut), touches of the muted terracotta that appears in late-season Japanese textile palettes. One face carries the main compositional weight — a flowing botanical pattern that reads across the full length of the runner. The reverse presents the same colours in a tighter, more geometric arrangement.
Among our silk table runners, this is the piece that most directly embodies the Japanese principle of careful attention to what is not immediately visible.