Ko-bukusa Cloth (Tea-things) (zuichoudanmonnishiki)

Pattern of this brocade is modeled after a design drawn on "Hira-yana-gui" (a flat quiver), Sacred Treasure of Kasuga Taisha, which was dedicated to Wakamiya Jinja, a subordinate shrine of Kasuga Taisha, when it was founded in 1135. "Hira-yana-gui" was originally produced by the finest and highest grade craftworks under the supportive patronage of the Imperial Court for Fujiwara Yorinaga who was the inheritor of Fujiwara Clan, the most politically powerful noble. The original design elegantly consists of the plovers flying over the seashore finely described by cutting out a silver plate and then inlayed with black lacquer, the flowers and the scrolls minutely expressed by a chasing work, and the flowers and the long-tailed fowls brilliantly wrought on the frame of rosewood by a mother-of-pearl work. We have woven into warp-patterned brocade bringing the original motives in stripe pattern with our refined technique. The Source : National Treasure owned by Kasuga Taisha "Hira-yana-gui", Heian Period (12th C.)