This superb hanging was presented to the Ashmolean Museum in 1958 by Sir Herbert Ingram, who travelled to Japan on his honeymoon in 1908. It is possible that this piece was purchased then. Cranes were popular symbols of longevity and a perfect subject for a newly-married couple. The trailing wisteria blossoms are carefully placed to disguise the joins between the four panels of this hanging. (Exhibition number 19)
Impey, Oliver, and Joyce Seaman, Japanese Decorative Arts of the Meiji Period 1868-1912, Ashmolean Handbooks (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 2005), no. 2 on p. 12, illus. p. 13
Impey, Oliver, ‘Reflections upon the Arts and Crafts of Meiji Period Japan with Reference to the Collection of the Ashmolean Museum’, Oriental Art, 42/3, (Autumn 1996), p. 12, illus. p. 12 fig. 2
Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 9 November 2012-27 January 2013, Threads of Silk and Gold: Ornamental Textiles from Meiji Japan, Clare Pollard, ed. (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 2012), no. 19 on p. 116, p. 6, illus. pp. 116-119
tsutsugaki
A method of resist dyeing, in which areas of cloth are painted with starch paste, applied through a bamboo tube (tsutsu), to protect them from the dye
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