Cape
Not on view
Japanese kappa were originally adapted from the capes worn by Portuguese missionary priests in the sixteenth century. (The Japanese word for priest is bozu.) Although at first capes were worn only by high-ranking samurai, by the eighteenth century commoners were wearing them for travel, and they are occasionally seen in travel prints of the nineteenth century.
This semicircular reversible cape is made up of eighteen wedge-shaped pieces of warp-and-weft ikat (tate-yoko-gasuri) cotton plain weave. It is interlined with paper for warmth.
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