"Patchwork" Kosode Revisited

[Noriko]

Hello! I know I've been away for a long time (life happened yadda yadda yadda) but I found this interesting tidbit in a book I'm reading. It brought to mind the Momoyama Patchwork Kosode debate from days of yore and how there was a great controversy over whether the fabric was actually patchwork, given the 'theme' of Japanese clothing was to keep cloth in as big as possible pieces. Well, here's one answer: it's not patchwork. The book, "Textile and Fashion Arts" in the MFA[1] Highlights series has a section on the museums collection of No robes.

For one robe, they note it is constructed out of large, intact panels with the huge color contrasts constructed by resist dyeing the warp threads (the ones that go up and down). The pattern is then created when weaving. You can see in the picture below how the brown dye seems to bleed into the areas of yellow; you couldn't create this effect if you cut and sewed pieces together.

www.mfa.org/collections/object/noh-costume-karaori-28291

In some other pictures (on their website, not in the book), you can see patterns that travel over the edges.

www.mfa.org/collections/object/noh-costume-karaori-28695

Needless to say, however, to create a garment like this would require a deft hand at dyeing and well, cutting and piecing together may be the best way to replicate the look, if not the technique.

Just thought I'd share because I thought it's really cool.


[1]MFA: Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. The museum has a very large collection of Japanese art, due to quirks of history, including IIRC, the largest collection of block prints outside of Japan.

[Saionji Shonagon]

There was a controversy?

Seiroku Noma's lovely little volume on "Japanese Costume and Textile Arts" says the style *evolved* from piecing by necessity by members of the lower classes and was *imitated* as it became fashionable. Some early garments were pieced while others were dyed/woven/embroidered to create the illusion of piecing.

The eye-watering Uesugi Kenshin dofuku is certainly a pieced garment. as is this dan gawari Noh robe described in Money Hickman's "Japan's Golden Age: Momoyama" "Two large patches of red and white plain-weave silk with gold foil designs of branches of weeping cherry extend from the shoulders to just above the waist. Below these, five smaller patches are stitched together at the center of the back.....The uneven size of the red and white blocks as well as the difference in size, scale and arrangement of the floral sprays indicates that the robe was pieced together from parts of two different garments."

[bovil]

May 16, 2014 21:52:32 GMT -5 Noriko said:

Well, here's one answer: it's not patchwork.

It's not patchwork in the relatively late Edo period Noh costume you cite.

Edo period.

Or the even later Meiji period Noh costume you cite.

Meiji period.

[Noriko]

Ok. I remembered there being some argument about some garment or another, not the two pictured, being pieced or not and I thought this was an interesting technique that might have some in-period precedent. (I posted pictures from the MFA as they happen to be nice pictures of the technique). Never mind.

[Saionji Shonagon]

There are examples of both pieced and imitation-pieced garments from period. This one was embroidered to achieve alternating blocks:



However, one should be careful when trying to document whether something was or wasn't done in period by using something created well outside that period.

EDIT, that was weird. Try pasting this into your browser: www.emuseum.jp/detail/101136/000/000?mode=detail&d_lang=en&s_lang=en&class=9&title=&c_e=®ion=&era=¢ury=&cptype=&owner=&pos=1&num=8

[Noriko]

Yeah, I know. I've just been so out of the game, it didn't even occur to me to go through the information vetting process/didn't realize it wasn't period. I was like, "Oooh, neato. Gonna post that."

[Lady Kimiko]

This is my favorite style of kosode and I have made four now, and helped make a few more. Here is a brief visual guide as well as the names of the styles that I found in a book long ago. There are -ample- period examples of these styles found on screens, and left over textiles.

Originally they were a true patchwork, then as the style became popular they became dyed to look the part.

i62.tinypic.com/rjkugi.jpg

[Matsuyama Yoshitoshi]

May 17, 2014 10:02:02 GMT -5 Saionji Shonagon said:

this dan gawari Noh robe described in Money Hickman's "Japan's Golden Age: Momoyama" "Two large patches of red and white plain-weave silk with gold foil designs of branches of weeping cherry extend from the shoulders to just above the waist. Below these, five smaller patches are stitched together at the center of the back.....The uneven size of the red and white blocks as well as the difference in size, scale and arrangement of the floral sprays indicates that the robe was pieced together from parts of two different garments."

Am looking at making a similar patchwork kosode. The photo is an excellent source for the placement of the patchwork pieces on the back of the garment, however, is this placement repeated on the front? That is: are the alternating top panels folded at the shoulder (that is: left back panel red and left front panel red) or has a shoulder seam been created so that the front panels are now alternating (that is: left back panel red, left front panel white)? And are the sode a single panel or do they too alternate? Hope this makes sense?

Enquiring minds would really like to know.

TIA.

[Saionji Shonagon]

Nov 25, 2014 18:47:13 GMT -5 Matsuyama Yoshitoshi said:

Am looking at making a similar patchwork kosode. The photo is an excellent source for the placement of the patchwork pieces on the back of the garment, however, is this placement repeated on the front of the garment? That is: are the two alternating top panels folded over at the shoulder (that is: back panel red and front panel red) or has a shoulder seam been created so that the front panels are now reversed (that is: back red, front white)? Does this make sense?

Enquiring minds would really like to know.

Unfortunately, I have not found any images of this garment from the front. That said, it seems likely to me that if the sleeve is white in the back, it's white in the front and that would follow for the panels at the top of the garment.

[Matsuyama Yoshitoshi]

Thank you. On much closer inspection, I now see the patchwork eri is matched to its corresponding panel (suggesting an over-the-shoulder panel arrangement). As does the www.emuseum.jp link. Again, many thanks.