previous image | Lords of the Samurai main exhibition | next image

Coat with horizontal bands, late 1700s
Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
Wool, silk, and gilded paper
Eisei-Bunko Museum, 6940
© Eisei Bunko, Japan.

This sleeveless jinbaori, which was worn by Hosokawa Narishige (1759–1836), is made from wool imported from Europe in a red-and-white stripe accented with gold-patterned silk. The horizontal bands are not dyed or woven into the cloth; instead, they were made by placing wide strips of red and white felted wool side by side and stitching them together with meticulous, invisible stitches to create the effect of continuous fabric. Such a striped wool textile would have seemed exotic to contemporary Japanese not only for its extravagance (wool was not produced in Japan) but also for the clean lines of its stripes—aesthetically different from the dyed or woven horizontal bands of domestically produced luxury textiles.

previous image | Lords of the Samurai main exhibition | next image