Kesa (Buddhist Priest's Robe) thumbnail 1
On display

Kesa (Buddhist Priest's Robe)

1800-1850 (made)
Place of origin

This textile is a ‘kesa’, a rectangular garment worn by Japanese Buddhist priests. Kesa are normally made of a sewn patchwork of cloth, the arrangement of the sections of fabric into columns surrounded by a border serving as a mandala, a symbolic rendering of the universe. This is an example of a pictorial kesa. It has an elegant design of butterflies and flowers, the changing ground colour being achieved through the resist-dyeing of the warp threads. The fabric used here was not cut up into individual pieces. Instead, lengths were sewn side by side and silk cord was then sewn onto the surface to represent the traditional patchwork divisions. There are six additional squares of fabric sewn on to the surface,which feature characters from Siddham, a script used for writing Sanskrit from about 500-1200. The characters, known as shittan or bonji, continued to be an important part of Buddhist iconography, and some Japanese sects still use the Siddham script for the writing of mantras and copying of sutras.

Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Polychrome figured and resist-dyed silk and silk cord
Brief description
Kesa (Buddhist priest's robe), polychrome figured silk with resist-dyed warps threads and silk cord. Decoration of butterflies and flowers by a fence, with six patches bearing characters, Kyoto, Japan, 1800-1850
Physical description
Buddhist priest's robe (kesa) with design of butterflies, chrysanthemums and peonies by a fence. The ground is woven with selectively resist-dyed threads, and the pattern is produced with supplementary wefts of silk and gold paper strips (kinran.) Silk cord has been used to mark divisions on the surface and there are six patches with characters derived from sanskrit text.
Dimensions
  • Length: 114.5cm
  • Width: 201.5cm
Style
Credit line
Given by T.B. Clarke-Thornhill
Object history
Registered File number 1973/946.
Subjects depicted
Summary
This textile is a ‘kesa’, a rectangular garment worn by Japanese Buddhist priests. Kesa are normally made of a sewn patchwork of cloth, the arrangement of the sections of fabric into columns surrounded by a border serving as a mandala, a symbolic rendering of the universe. This is an example of a pictorial kesa. It has an elegant design of butterflies and flowers, the changing ground colour being achieved through the resist-dyeing of the warp threads. The fabric used here was not cut up into individual pieces. Instead, lengths were sewn side by side and silk cord was then sewn onto the surface to represent the traditional patchwork divisions. There are six additional squares of fabric sewn on to the surface,which feature characters from Siddham, a script used for writing Sanskrit from about 500-1200. The characters, known as shittan or bonji, continued to be an important part of Buddhist iconography, and some Japanese sects still use the Siddham script for the writing of mantras and copying of sutras.
Bibliographic references
  • Jackson, Anna. Japanese textiles. London: V&A Publications, 2000, Plate 35.
  • Jackson, Anna. 'Ritual and drama: Japanese costume in the Victoria and Albert Museum' in Arts of Asia, Vol. 33, No. 2, 2003, pp. 102-109, Plate 11, p. 106.
  • Miller, Lesley Ellis, and Ana Cabrera Lafuente, with Claire Allen-Johnstone, eds. Silk: Fibre, Fabric and Fashion. London: Thames & Hudson Ltd in association with the Victoria and Albert Museum, 2021. ISBN 978-0-500-48065-6. This object features in the publication Silk: Fibre, Fabric and Fashion (2021)
Collection
Accession number
T.80-1927

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Record createdFebruary 20, 2003
Record URL
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