Unidentified
Ohi with Peonies and Chrysanthemums
Buddhist, 1767-1832
Scroll
Unidentified
Ohi with Peonies and Chrysanthemums
Buddhist, 1767-1832
Physical Qualities
Silk, gilded metallic paper, 58-1/2 x 11 in.
Credit Line
Gift of Davy McCall, Chestertown, Maryland
Object Number
2002.589
An ohi or Buddhist priest's stole composed of a fabric woven of gilded paper wefts. The ohi features two narrow strips of fabric seamed down the middle lengthwise surrounded by a border of the same fabric on all sides, which is mitered at the corners. The fabric has a pattern of peonies and chrysanthemums created by supplemental wefts of silk floss, including dark purple, gray-blue, white, light purple or pink, plum, and light green. The floral designs appear at the intersections of a diaper pattern composed of an ancient hollyhock motif. Two small squares appear at the top corners and two more at the bottom corners, mimicking the arrangement of the kesa. These are composed of kinran created of red silk with gilt paper floral designs. The ohi is lined in purple rinzu featuring roundels floating within tate-waku (undulating lines). The roundels enclose a long tailed bird and floral motif. The tate-waku are patterned with floral semi-roundels. The fabric composing the ohi is of a complex weave structure with very narrow violet warps, one set apparently interacting with the main wefts, which consist of bundles of three thick brown threads, and others tying down the supplementary wefts, including the gilded paper in a two-to-one twill.
The Baltimore Museum of Art by gift, 2002; Davy McCall, Chestertown, Maryland, purchased by the donor from the Imperial Hotel Antique Shop, Tokyo, Japan in 1945
Alan Kennedy. Japanese Costume: History and Tradition. Paris: Editions Adam Biro, 1990, pp. 121-150. Alan Kennedy. Manteau de nuages: kesa japonais XVIII-XIX siecle. Paris: Reunion des musees nationaux, 1991. Barry Till and Paula Swart. 'Elegance and Spirituality of Japanese Kesa.' Arts of Asia (Vol. 27, No. 4), pp. 51-63. Anne Nishimura Morse and Samuel Crowell Morse. Object as Insight: Japanese Buddhist Art & Ritual, N.Y.: Katonah Museum of Art, 1995, pp. 8-17. Sunny Yang and Rochelle M. Narasin. Textile Art of Japan. Tokyo: Shufunotomo Co., Ltd., 1989, p. 112.
Inscribed: None
Maker
Unidentified
2000-01-01 00:00:00–2000-01-01 00:00:00
