Japanese Love Letter Silk Scarf - The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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Scarves and Shawls > Oblong Scarves

New - Japanese Love Letter Silk Scarf

ENLARGE

The romantic image captured on our luxurious silk scarf is reproduced from a late 18th-century woodblock print by Japanese artist Torii Kiyonaga (1742–1815), a master at portraying feminine beauty. It depicts a courtesan on a veranda reading a letter by the light of a lantern. Above her, on a balcony, a man also reads the letter with the assistance of a hand mirror, while from under the veranda a second woman may be seen reading the lower end of the scroll. The long, narrow shape of the original print makes it particularly well suited for the Museum’s adaptation. Woodblock prints were initially used as early as the 8th century in Japan to disseminate texts, especially Buddhist scriptures. The designer and painter Tawaraya Sotatsu (died about 1640) used wood stamps in the early 17th century to print designs on paper and silk. In 1765, new technology made it possible to produce single-sheet prints in a whole range of colors. Printmakers who until then had worked in monochrome and painted the colors in by hand, or had printed only a few colors, gradually came to use full polychrome painting to spectacular effect.

Imported silk crêpe de chine. 62 in. x 11 in.

Japanese Love Letter Scarf
12-059903
Member Price: $58.50 each
Non-Member Price: $65.00 each

Quantity:


Sale - "Ladies with Umbrellas" Silk Square 12-059598 Member Price: $57.38 Non-Member Price: $63.75		New - Japanese Cranes and Flowers Jacquard Shawl Member Price: $130.50 Non-Member Price: $145.00		New - Imperial Japanese Floral Silk Scarf 12-059911 Member Price: $67.50 Non-Member Price: $75.00

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