Ko-bukusa Cloth (Tea-things) (Tensho-karuta)

Many Portuguese cultures had been introduced into Japan through the trades from the South in the Momoyama period (1573-1630A.D. ). Tensho cards retain such Portuguese vestiges of those days. They are similar to today's playing cards and consist of four kinds of marks (a cup, a coin, a sword, and a wand), each of which consists of the plain cards from number two to nine, and the four picture cards (a king, a knight, a court-lady, and a dragon) totaling twelve cards in each mark. We have woven this exotic design of Tensho cards into warp-patterned brocade based on the printing blocks of the cards.