Vase Mat (S) (Kozan-ji Ryu-mon)

The design of this brocade is modeled after a pattern of a cloth covering a chair on which Amoghavajra (705-774 A.D.), a high priest of Esoteric Buddhism, drawn in a painting made in the Nan-sung Dynasty, China (1127-1279 A.D.) having been kept at Kozan-ji temple, Kyoto and designated as an important cultural property. There have been too many designs to count drawn in combination of dragon and cloud together because traditionally it is said that "there is a cloud where a dragon leaps and a dragon lies behind a cloud". Among those, the original design of this brocade, depicting the clouds in hexagonal pattern and a vigorous and graceful dragon design in roundel placed in the center, reminds a superior power of creation of the ancient artists. The dignified design was woven into warp-patterned brocade in our weaving technique.