Bark Cloth Sample

Sleeping Cloth Fragment

A white, rectangular sample of bark cloth made of mamaki (Pipturus albidus). One side has a diagonal line of dark pigment present. The sample was removed from a kapa moe (bed covering) measuring approximately 5 x 6.2 feet, present at the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum. The kapa is referenced in William T. Brigham’s Ka Hana Kapa. A patterned bark beater with a hoopai (parallel lines with sharp edges) motif was used in its production, leaving visible markings in the cloth. The decorative pattern is bands of zigzags and lines, known as Kuilewa (bent knee). The pigments used in the surface decoration were noni (Morinda citrifolia) and nanahu (charcoal).

Kapa cloth is produced from the inner bark of a tree, typically wauke (paper mulberry), which is cultivated, harvested, and processed through soaking, scraping, fermenting, and repeated beating to form and refine the cloth. Patterned beaters may be used during production to create watermarks that can reflect regional styles or maker affiliations. After drying, the cloth is decorated using natural dyes and bamboo implements.

Kapa moe, used as bedding, was made with particular attention to thickness and durability to withstand repeated use, washing, and sun-drying.

From the eighteenth century onward, European collectors and scholars frequently collected kapa, often removing small samples from larger textiles to facilitate transport, study, and comparison in museum and private collections, a practice especially common during and after Cook’s voyages in the Pacific.