Man’s Under Kimono (Nagajuban) with Mount Fuji
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.Snow-covered Mount Fuji adorns this fashionable nagajuban, which is made of a soft, lightweight plain-weave silk (habutai) similar to taffeta. The large, stylized design of the sacred mountain was rendered against a dark blue ground in stitch-and-bind resist technique (nuishime-shibori), with a painstakingly executed gradation from white to deep gray. The dark hue delicately contrasts with the deep blue ground. Mount Fuji is one of the most represented subjects in Japanese art, depicted on hanging scrolls, folding screens, woodblock prints, ceramics, and lacquerware, and features prominently in Japanese literature. On this robe, the perfectly shaped mountain, revered in Shinto and Buddhism, is a symbol of good fortune.
Artwork Details
- 藍羽二重地富士山模様男物長襦袢
- Title: Man’s Under Kimono (Nagajuban) with Mount Fuji
- Period: Showa period (1926–89)
- Date: second quarter 20th century
- Culture: Japan
- Medium: Plain-weave silk with stitched tie-dyeing
- Dimensions: 55 1/2 × 52 in. (141 × 132.1 cm)
- Classification: Costumes
- Credit Line: Promised Gift of John C. Weber
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art