Kinpu Envelope Holder (Soun-ji Bundai-gire)

The design of this brocade is originated from a cloth which covered a writing desk and an inkstone case, preserved at Soun-ji Temple in Hakone, Kanagawa Prefecture, belonged to Sogi (1421-1502), the master of the "linked verse" type of poetry called renga, and is now designated as an Important Cultural Property. The original is a silver brocade with a ground filled with silvered paper stripes and patterned with a bine arabesque design of wild pink in colored yarns of green, maroon, and slight rouge. Adding a modern device to the original brocade, the new brocade is woven with our technique leaving the exquisite harmony of tastefulness and luxury of the original material.