Ocean Wave Japanese Door Curtain 'Oonami'

Deep blue noren curtain with round curling waves and spray in white

Round waves, deep blue, white spray. This noren is a deep blue ground printed with large waves that curl into near-circles, drawn in white line with white spray flung above them and a scatter of dots, repeating in rows across both panels so the curtain reads as a sea of rolling circles. It is the wave drawn as a wheel, and the deep blue is the colour of open water.

It is the noren for a person who likes the wave round rather than sharp.

The name, Oonami, is the great wave, and on this curtain it is drawn as a circle.

The curtain is a lightweight woven polyester printed through, hemmed on all sides, with a rod channel sewn across the top and a split running from just below the channel to the hem, so it hangs as two panels that part when you walk through and fall closed behind you. It is photographed on a rod across a doorway at the same scale as every noren in the collection.

Hang it on a tension rod or a dowel through the channel, across a doorway, a kitchen entrance, a corridor, a window or a wall, at a height where the hem clears the head. In Japan it hangs at a shop door to say open and in a house to make one room into two. It moves in a draught and it is meant to.

The circle is the detail: each wave curls so far it nearly closes on itself, drawn in a white line that thickens at the crest, and the spray above it is a burst of white dots. The rows are offset and the circles are large, about the size of a hand and a half.

Machine wash cool on a gentle cycle, hang to dry, and iron on low if the fold shows. The print is through the cloth and does not fade in an ordinary room; keep it out of direct sun if you want the colour to last for years.

From across a room it is a deep blue curtain with white circles. From close the circles are waves, the line shows its thickening, and the spray its dots. It is the noren for a bathroom and a person who likes a round shape.

Nine sizes, width by drop: 55 by 90, 65 by 100, 70 by 120, 80 by 130, 90 by 150, 95 by 160, 100 by 170, 110 by 180 and 120 by 200 cm. Measure the doorway and choose a width a few centimetres wider and a drop that clears the head; the split is in every size.