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Buddhist Priest's Stole (Ohi) with Decoration of Flowers and Grasses over a Ground with Horizontal Linear Pattern

Buddhist Priest's Stole (Ohi) with Decoration of Flowers and Grasses over a Ground with Horizontal Linear Pattern

Japanese

A Buddhist priest's stole worn draped over the forearm in concert with a kesa (robe), this columnar garment known as an ōhi is made up of mulitple pieces of the same cloth that together form a patchwork of squares and rectangles framed within a border. The fabric ground was dyed to a brown color; supplementary wefts of gold were interwoven into the main fabric to create a horizontal linear pattern. Multicolored silk threads were utlized to embroider images of flowers and leaves over the brown and gold ground.

Compound weave brown silk with supplementary gold wefts; selected motifs embroidered in polychrome silk threads

Edo period, 1615-1868

Textile Arts