Book Cover (Tempyo Mokuga Sou-ka-kin)

Since its establishment in 1894, Tatsumura Bijutsu Orimono has been engaged in textile production based on "restoration and creation. Among these, research and restoration of Shosoin treasures is one of the cornerstones of the company's activities. Since Heizo Tatsumura, the founder of Tatsumura Bijutsu Orimono, conducted research on ancient textile fragments at Shosoin and restored them, his knowledge, techniques, and spirit have been passed down through the generations to today's Tatsumura Bijutsu Orimono.
In this feature, we have selected notable patterns from among the many Shosoin-derived patterns that we have restored. We hope you will see, touch, and feel the delicacy and beauty hidden in Shosoin treasures. Please enjoy them to your heart's content.

Among the Shōsō-in Treasures, there remain fine arts not only brought from the continent but also made by domestic artisans in the Nara period(710-784 A.D.) who had presumably been affected by the culture of the Tang Dynasty China (618-907 A.D.) and further the West. This design is modeled after a pattern inlaid in the biwa lute made of red sandalwood, having been kept in the Shōsō-in Repository, composed of four-petalled flowers, six-petalled flowers, and small six-petalled flowers placed one after the other. The warp-patterned brocade is woven in our technique leaving the sentiments of the inlaid work recalling the ethos of the Tempyō art in the Nara period.