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Unknown Maker, Japanese

Kesa

Maker

Unknown Maker, Japanese

Culture

Japanese

Title

Kesa

Year

late 1700s-1800s

Medium

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

Materials

silk, gilt paper

Geography

Place Made: Japan

Dimensions

Width: 217.2 cm (85 1/2 inches)

Signature / Inscription / Marks

inscribed on lining; lining has been reversed. inscription has 18th century date.

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Gift of Miss Lucy T. Aldrich

Object Number

35.327

Type

Exhibition History

A Tribute to Miss Lucy
Japanese Kesa from the Aldrich Collection
Nov 01, 2002 – Feb 01, 2003

Label copy

This unremarkable kesa offers remarkable proof that textiles were sometimes woven expressly for kesa. The usual loom width of Japanese textiles was about 13 inches, requiring the four long pieces of the kesa's border to be made from lengths of the narrow cloth. Normally, this means that the warp and the pattern of the side borders are perpendicular to the warp and pattern of upper and lower borders. Here, however, the pattern looks uniform throughout the kesa. To achieve this, two different green gauze textiles would had to have been made especially for the kesa. In the textile used for the side borders, the pattern runs parallel to the warps; and in the textile used for the top and bottom borders, the pattern runs perpendicular to the warps.

Buddhist Vestments
Japanese Kesa
Apr 30, 1993 – Jul 31, 1993

Image use

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Public Domain This object is in the Public Domain and available under a CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication

Tombstone

Unknown Maker, Japanese
Kesa, late 1700s-1800s
Silk; gilt paper
Width: 217.2 cm (85 1/2 inches)
Gift of Miss Lucy T. Aldrich 35.327

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