Kimono, crêpe silk with paste-resist decoration and embroidery in polychrome silk and metallic thread, Japan, Meiji period, 1880-1900

Furisode (kimono with swinging sleeves) for a woman. The garment is cut in the classic kimono style. The wrist openings are small but the sleeves are left open for their entire length of the body side until they join the main garment body. The underarm seam on the garment body is also left open for approximately 11 cm.
The design, on pale blue silk crêpe is denser on the bottom half of the kimono. It consists of blossoms, fans, tasseled and ribboned flower bouquets and lengths of patterned textile (possibly kimono) over stands, all against clouds. The techniques used are resist-dyeing and painting (probably both yuzen and stencil resist) and embroidery (including polychrome untwisted silk straight stitches, knot stitch, stem stitch, laid gold work couched down with small stitches and also padded and decoratively couched, and plaited silk couched down).

Purchased. Registered File number 1987/2033.

Brought back to Britain by John Bonham-Carter who visited East Asia in 1881-2.

This elegantly patterned kimono celebrates the beauty of textiles through its decoration, which depicts lengths of fabric hung on an elaborate stand and gently fluttering in the breeze surrounded by clouds, fans and falling cherry blossoms. The design was created using a technique called yuzen. This involves drawing the pattern on the cloth with rice paste extruded through the metal tip of a cloth bag. The paste forms a protective coat that prevents the colour penetrating when the dyes are applied. Here the skills of the dyer have been enhanced by those of the embroider, who has highlighted the stand and the edges of the fabrics in gold and added flowers, blossoms and elaborate ties and tassels in pink, white and green.

FE.29-1987