Robe (Kosode) with Bamboo and Plum

This modern-looking kosode (a robe with small sleeve openings that was the predecessor of the modern kimono) from the 18th century has a surprisingly individual design. The off-white ground fabric is figured satin silk (rinzu), with a complex pattern of peonies, snowflakes, and scrolling vines combined with lozenge (sayagata) motives. The combination of peony and snowflakes (botanyuki) is a reference to the type of large, beautiful snowflakes that recall the delicate petals of white peonies, the “king of flowers.” This pattern is typically associated with the beginning or the end of winter. New spears of flowering plum and shoots of bamboo with new leaves in green and older ones in gold are depicted in a highly stylized form on this rich ground, arrayed in straight, almost geometric formations. The crisscrossing diagonals of flowering plum and bamboo create an abstract pattern that evokes a garden in the early spring, when fragrant plum blossoms, the first flowers to bloom in the new year, are in full bloom. The refined design is complex and conveys auspicious meanings. The plum is the harbinger of new beginnings, while bamboo is a symbol of perseverance and resilience, hope and determination – regularly featured in poetry and literature. However, this kosode features these well-known patterns in a strikingly abstracted form. The plum branches are executed in a dark brownish purple color, while the delicate flowers are pink, the petals elegantly graduated from dark to light, and the centers are created with fine lines in paste-resist reserve (shiro-age, or itome-nori white-reserve). One row of bamboo is green, and the one behind is a combination of green with gold thread couching (komadori-nui). This kosode represents the unique traditions of Kaga yūzen, paste-resist dyed fabrics made in Kanazawa during the Edo period.