Court robe, green twill weave silk with bronze-coloured satin weave decoration, Japan, 1850-1900

Court robe for a man, open-sided, and with a stiffened round neckline secured to the right with a silk toggle and loop. The sleeves, consisting of two widths of material, are secured to the garment body for only 20 cm at the back. The cuff ends of the sleeves are threaded with parti-coloured silk braid in white and purple. One width of material forms the back of the garment and this extends over the shoulders to partly form both the front and the underlapping section. Extra pieces of silk have, however, been seamed to both front and underflap to widen them.
The robe has a green silk ground of 2/1 warp-faced twill weave with stylised roundels (fusenrio) in bronze-coloured silk in a weft-faced 6-end satin weave. The weave is not technically therefore a classic damask, even though it has only one warp and one weft. The term damasse is sometimes employed to describe the use of two different weaves fro damask-like patterning as here.
The robe is of the kariginu type (hunting tunic) also used in No drama and it would have been worn over other garments.

Purchased. Registered File number 1983/2216.

This garment is called a kariginu or ‘hunting cloth’. It would have been worn by a male member of the Japanese imperial court. The body of the garment is very narrow and open at the sides, while the high, round collar is stiffened with thick paper. The double-width sleeves are attached only at the upper back to allow for maximum ease of movement when drawing a bow on horseback. Cords threaded along the cuffs allow the sleeves to be gathered up. The garment would have been worn with a sash, drawn up slightly to make the front section shorter than the back. When this example was made kariginu were no longer worn for hunting, but had become the everyday wear of high-ranking court nobles.

FE.158-1983