Unlined Summer Kimono (Hito-e) with Plovers in Flight over Stylized Waves

Japan

Taishō period (1912–26)

Not on view

Unlined, light and airy summer kimonos are often decorated with motifs for their cooling psychological effect. Here, violet and white plovers wheel and dive on a background of abstract peaked shapes that may be meant to represent waves or the drying fishnets found along the shores where plovers were plentiful. The violet plovers were embroidered in silk, while the white plovers were resist dyed on the dark ground and have tiny embroidered silver eyes. Similar patterns were popular in the second half of the Edo period (1615–1868), but the layout of the design was different and the depiction of the scene less stylized.

Unlined Summer Kimono (Hito-e) with Plovers in Flight over Stylized Waves, Embroidered and resist-dyed silk gauze (ro), Japan

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Unlined Summer Kimono (Hito-e) with Plovers in Flight over Stylized Waves, Embroidered and resist-dyed silk gauze (ro), Japan
Unlined Summer Kimono (Hito-e) with Plovers in Flight over Stylized Waves, Embroidered and resist-dyed silk gauze (ro), Japan
Unlined Summer Kimono (Hito-e) with Plovers in Flight over Stylized Waves, Embroidered and resist-dyed silk gauze (ro), Japan
Unlined Summer Kimono (Hito-e) with Plovers in Flight over Stylized Waves, Embroidered and resist-dyed silk gauze (ro), Japan
Unlined Summer Kimono (Hito-e) with Plovers in Flight over Stylized Waves, Embroidered and resist-dyed silk gauze (ro), Japan
Unlined Summer Kimono (Hito-e) with Plovers in Flight over Stylized Waves, Embroidered and resist-dyed silk gauze (ro), Japan
Unlined Summer Kimono (Hito-e) with Plovers in Flight over Stylized Waves, Embroidered and resist-dyed silk gauze (ro), Japan

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