Hanging tapestry (kendatsu) of goat wool. Woven design depicts stylised cranes in flight. The largest bird fills the centre of the tapestry, flying from left to right with its head turned backward below its body. Beneath it are two smaller birds, facing each other, their heads turned upward and beaks almost touching. The matching paired birds at the top are reversed.
The colours used for the birds and for the striped are predominantly white and dark brown, with small areas of paler brown, of three shades of pale green, two shades of pale pink and pale yellow. In some areas two shoots of dark brown alternate with two of white to give a striped effect. There is no hatching. The areas of colour are shaped partly by packing the wefts with greater or less density, and outlining shoots of weft and curved where the design demands.
There are 13 wrap threads to the inch.
The tapestry is woven in wool on a cotton wrap. The wrap is looped at the lower end and braided at the top. At the sides the wefts are bound around a bundle of wrap threads.
From the direction of the design this tapestry may have been intended as a cover to be draped over a piece of furniture and viewed from two sides.
Made in North China for the Japenese market.