Tsujigahana-Dyed Haori with Hollyhock Leaves and Crests on Purple Ground

One Garment, an Important Cultural Property since 2004

Tsujigahana-Dyed Haori with Hollyhock Leaves and Crests on Purple Ground (紫地葵紋付葵葉文様辻が花染羽織, Murasaki-ji Aoi-mon-tsuki Aoiba Moyo Tsujigahana-zome Haori) is held at the Tokugawa Art Museum, 1017 Tokugawa-cho, Higashi-ku, Nagoya City, Aichi Prefecture, listed as an Important Cultural Property on 8 June 2004. The listing is as an Important Cultural Property, not a National Treasure, and the owner is the Tokugawa Reimeikai foundation.

The quantity is one garment, the same measure word used for the red-laced and cherry-laced armours. Those are armour; this is clothing.

This site's record gives two prefectures, Tokyo and Aichi, while Cultural Heritage Online gives Aichi alone. The owning foundation and the museum that holds the garment lie in different prefectures.

The Period Field Says Momoyama, the Date Range Says 1601 to 1700

The era division and the range of years do not overlap.

The category field reads craft and the period field Azuchi-Momoyama.

The date field, however, reads Momoyama, 1601 to 1700.

The years 1601 to 1700 fall in the Edo period. The era division says Momoyama while the range covers a century reaching into the Edo.

At the Ishitani residence, the main house was Showa and two storehouses Taisho, the era dividing by building. At Otonashi Shrine, the period field read middle Edo while the commentary placed the style in the early Edo.

Here the period field and the date range disagree within one record. Of the rounding at the sleeves, the commentary says it shows the character of the Momoyama period well.

The Paired Measurements Agree Exactly

Of eight figures, two pairs come out the same.

The garment measures 112.0 centimetres in length, 58.0 centimetres across the shoulders and sleeves, 36.5 centimetres across the front and 36.5 centimetres across the back, 51.5 centimetres for the sleeve length, 22.0 centimetres for the sleeve width, 22.0 centimetres for the sleeve opening and 13.0 centimetres for the collar.

Front and back both come to 36.5 centimetres; sleeve width and sleeve opening both to 22.0 centimetres.

With the gilt bronze ritual implements, three vajras ran 18.5, 18.8 and 19.4 centimetres, differing slightly. With the sea-beast mirror, the thickness was recorded as changing from centre to rim.

Here the paired parts agree exactly.

Of the form: the body is wide while the sleeves and their openings are narrow, in the manner of a small-sleeved robe, and the rounding at the sleeves is made by gathering the seam allowance with thread.

The Leaves Vary in Number, the Crests Are Fixed at Five

The same plant appears in two different arrangements.

Large hollyhock leaves are scattered over the whole surface in groups of two to five: the number varies.

The three-leaf hollyhock crest, by contrast, is placed at five points, on both breasts, on the back of both sleeves and at the centre back. That number is fixed.

The colours divide too. The leaves are in white, pale blue-green, light green and deep green. The crests have a pale blue-green outer ring, white within, and leaves in light and deep green.

For both, the veins of the leaves and the dew upon them are reserved in white.

All of this is worked by stitch-resist, the technique known as tsujigahana. The scattered leaves and the fixed crests are rendered by one method.

Seeing It

The museum holds the garment and the foundation owns it. With the iron pagoda it was the Nara National Museum and Saidaiji; with the Gekimosho, the Tenri library and the university. Here it is a museum and a foundation.

The making is described: the outer face is purple twill silk, the lining pale blue-green plain silk, padded and lined throughout.

The sleeves are narrow in width and opening in the manner of a small-sleeved robe, with no opening at the underarm. The collar is of the crossed type, carried to the hem in the same cloth, with no front panel.

The commentary names a comparable work: a robe of similar dyeing at the Tokyo National Museum, said to have been given by Tokugawa Ieyasu to a retainer in the late Momoyama period.

With the Gekimosho, another copy was set against it and this one called the only sound text: a matter of which is better. Here works of the same kind are simply set side by side. It is a museum holding, not kept on permanent display. Check before travelling.