The butterfly motif came into its own in China during the Tang dynasty (618-906), and several examples of decorative arts of the Tang bearing this pattern were preserved in the eighth-century Shōsōin imperial repository in Nara, Japan. Chinese secular poetry and writings on Buddhism also featured the butterfly, and Japanese admiration for these texts helped bring the motif to the fore in the literary and visual arts of Japan, where its popularity has lasted for centuries.This robe is decorated only at the shoulders (kata) and hem (suso), where the embroidered autumn design is on a glowing background of gold leaf.
