Resist-dye and silk embroidery on crepe (chirimen) silk.

A long-sleeved Japanese woman’s silk crepe kimono with a light blue ground. A white hand-drawn resist-dyed design of pine trees, flower blossoms, maple leaves and a flowing stream covers the entire kimono. Some of the resist-dyed motifs are accented in embroidered satin stitch. Some of the accents include: red-orange flowers, green tree tops and pine needles, leaves in different shades of green, dark brown tree trunks and purple rocks. Gold couching is also used all over the kimono to accent the dyed design. The back of the kimono is more elaborately decorated than the front with the stencil design, covering most of the back suggesting that this kimono could be worn with a variety of obi widths. There is also a dark brown and red embroidered and gold couched Genji cart and a gold couched and green embroidered hat and raincoat of invisibility on the lower left of the back side of the kimono. This robe was probably originally worn as an osode (long-sleeve) kimono for a young woman and later modified into an uchikake (outer kimono) by adding the band of padding along the hem. Uchikake were draped over the shoulders and worn as housecoats. The maple leaf (momiji) motif and thick padding indicate that this robe was intended to be worn in the late autumn.
For More Information: Dower, John W. The Elements of Japanese Design. Stinchecum, Amanda Mayer. Kosode: 16th-19th Century Textiles from the Nomura Collection. New York: Kodansha International, 1984.

This object has the following keywords:

• Robes
• Textiles - Japanese Art: Textiles

This object is a member of the following portfolios: