Unknown Maker, Japanese

The bold blue and yellow stripes of this robe are stenciled with a delicate silver-leaf pattern of running water, with barely visible floating chrysanthemums lightly printed in India ink. The robe was created as a costume for a character in a No play, a theatrical genre developed in 14th-century Japan which uses drama, dance, and music to present stories from Japanese legend and literature. This style of robe, known as surihaku, is reserved for women’s roles, and would have been worn as the innermost layer of a character’s ensemble-glimpsed only in slivers and with the movement of the actor.

This elegant robe would have been worn under a karaori or nuihaku for female roles. The pattern of running water is sometimes known as kanze mizu and is said

to have been created by the Kanze troupe of No actors with origins in the 14th century. Its members included the famous actors Kan'ami Kiyotsugu (1333-1384) and his son Zeami Motokiyo (1363-1443), who were instrumental in creating the No drama in its present form. The running-water pattern has come to symbolize the troupe, which still exists.

This robe came with a paper wrapper indicating that it had been in the possession of the No troupe associated with the court of the Ikeda family in Bishu, Okayama Prefecture, in western Japan.