Maru Obi with Gosho-guruma (Noble’s Carriage) and Chinese Building
1911
Physical Qualities
Silk with supplementary wefts of silk, and metal-leafed paper strips wrapped around a silk or cotton thread core
, 150 x 12-3/4 in.
Credit Line
Bequest of Sylvia G. Straton, Rhinebeck, New York
Object Number
2002.686
A maru obi of nishiki (polychrome figured silk with supplementary wefts of silk, metallic-leafed paper strips and metallic-leafed paper strips wrapped around a cotton thread core). The design consists of a repeating pattern of two overlapping hi-ogi (imperial court fans). The Heian motif of a noble’s carriage (gosho-guruma) is enclosed within the silhouette of one hi-ogi. It is accompanied by pines (symbols of faithfulness and longevity), and a bridge (a common landscape feature on Heian estates with their large artificial lakes).
The other hi-ogi encloses an exoticized Chinese building
surrounded by clouds, chrysanthemums, and pine boughs.
The Baltimore Museum of Art by bequest , 2002; Sylvia G. Straton, Rhinebeck, New York
Anita Jones and Ann Marie Moeller, The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD, "Kimono and Obi: Romantic Echoes from Japan's Golden Age," July 10, 2016 - January 15, 2017.
