Browse: 10610 objects
- Reference URL
Actions
Two hōō, or mythical birds, over turbulent waves by a paulownia tree
- loan
-
Description
The hō-ō is a mythical bird and symbol of immortality, sometimes called the Japanese ‘phoenix’. Originally derived from Chinese mythology, it became a popular motif in Japanese art. The most spectacular feature of this hanging is the gold thread ground, which resembles the gold leaf background on painted folding screens. Thread loss in some areas reveals cotton thread and paper padding beneath the embroidery stitches. (Exhibition number 6)
-
Details
- Associated place
-
Asia › Japan › Honshū › Kyōto prefecture › Kyoto (probable place of creation)Europe (original location)
- Date
-
late 19th century
Meiji Period (1868 - 1912)
- Material and technique
- silk, partly covered with painted paper, and embroidered with coloured silk (applied over cotton stitching and paper padding), paper-backed gold foil wrapped around a silk or cotton core, and flat silk; cotton border, dyed dark-brown
- Dimensions
- 130 x 194 cm (height x width)
- Material index
-
organic › animal › animal product › silk,
- Technique index
-
processed material › metal › gold,dyed,
- Object type index
- No. of items
- 1
- Credit line
- Lent by the Kiyomizu Sannenzaka Museum.
- Accession no.
- LI1956.26
-
Further reading
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. 6 p. 95, illus. pp. 86 & 95
Glossary
phoenix
-
phoenix
Mythical bird known as hōō in Japan. The Islamic tradition appropriated the far-eastern iconography of the phoenix and used it to represent another mythical bird, the simurgh.
Past Exhibition
see (1)-
Threads of Silk and Gold: Ornamental Textiles from Meiji Japan
(from 9th Nov 2012 until 27th Jan 2013)
Location
-
- returned to owner
Objects are sometimes moved to a different location. Our object location data is usually updated on a monthly basis. Contact the Jameel Study Centre if you are planning to visit the museum to see a particular object on display, or would like to arrange an appointment to see an object in our reserve collections.
Publications online
© 2013 University of Oxford - Ashmolean Museum