Furisode

This striking furisode of brilliantly colored silk is woven in a figured satin weave (rinzu-ori) that is further enhanced by a key-fret design called sayagata, juxtaposed with and balanced by floral elements.(1) The light red shade may have been achieved with a dye extracted from the petals of the safflower (Carthamus tintcorius thistle), known in Japan as benibana, or beni. The color is highly fugitive; to attain the intensity seen here, the woven silk fabric would have been repeatedly dipped into a beni dye bath. The use of red, associated with youth, and the long, hanging sleeves that identify the garment as a furisode indicate that it was intended — probably as a wedding kosode — for a young woman of the wealthy merchant class.(2) In its complex patterning, the fabric relies on several techniques — stenciling, imitation tie-dyeing (kata kanoko), and skillful needlework. The symbolic tortoises (longevity), flying cranes (longevity and happiness), pine trees (longevity), bamboo (resilience), and plum-blossom roundels (rejuvenation) are flawlessly executed in satin stitch embellished with couched accents of gilt thread. The piece is fully lined with matching, plain-woven silk and completed with a fuki, a padded extension at the hem that protects the precious silk from wear and soiling and gives weight and drape to the garment, especially the skirt.

Catalogue entry from Christa C. Mayer Thurman. The Robert Collection. Decorative Arts, Volume XV. Wolfram Koeppe, et al. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in association with Princeton University Press, 2012, pp. 388-389.

NOTES:
1. The term furisode translates as “swinging or waving sleeves,” referring to the wrist openings. Both kosode and furisode are forerunners of today’s kimono, a word that in Japanese means simply “thing to wear.” See Kosode: Sixteenth – Nineteenth Century Textiles from the Nomura Collection. Exhibition, Japan House Gallery, Spring 1984. Catalogue by Amanda Mayer Stinchecum, with essays by Monica Bethe and Margot Paul. Edited by Naomi Noble Richard and Margot Paul. New York, 1984; Japonism in Fashion: Japan Dresses the West. Exhibition, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, April – June 1998; Brooklyn Museum of Art, 20 November 1998 – 14 February 1999. Organized in association with the Kyoto Costume Institute. Catalogue. Brooklyn, 1998.
2. Correspondence and discussion with Sharon Takeda, senior curator and department head, Costume and Textiles, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, spring 1999.

[Mayuyama & Co., Tokyo]. Acquired by Robert Lehman through Mayuyama & Co.