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Surveys of Japanese Art by Medium
Textiles
See Kaneo Matsumoto, Jodai Gire: 7th and 8th Century Textiles in Japan from the
Shoso-in and Horyu-ji, translated by Shigeta Kaneko and Richard L. Mellott
(Kyoto: Shikosha, 1984), for splendid illustrations of pieces, many imported from
China. The handsome illustrations in Amanda Mayer Stinchecum et al., Kosode: 16th-19th
Century Textiles from the Nishimura Collection (New York: Japan Society and Kodansha
International, 1984) are limited to Momoyama and Tokugawa works, but the text discusses
earlier works as well, and the bibliography is extensive. For additional illustrations
of 17th- and 18th-century costumes, see Seiroku Noma, Japanese Costumes
and Textile Arts, translated by Armin Nikovskis (New York: Weatherhill, 1974).
Robes of Elegance: Japanese Kimonos of the 16th-20th Centuries (Raleigh:
North Carolina Museum of Art, 1988) is handsomely illustrated, and although the text
is weakly translated from the Japanese, it is still informative. Alan Kennedy, Japanese
Costume (Paris: Adam Biro, 1990) illustrates a few Buddhist pieces from as early
as the 8th century, but chiefly studies Noh robes and high-fashion garments from
the 16th century through the 19th. Among the most beautiful Japanese fabrics are
those produced in the 15th and 16th centuries by certain methods of tie-dyeing combined
with brush painting, embroidery, or rubbed gold or silver leaf. On this method, see
a handsome book by Toshiko Ito, Tsujigahana, translated by Monica Bethe (New
York: Kodansha International, 1985). For a history of the kimono, see Liza Dalby,
Kimono: Fashioning Culture (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993). For folk
textiles, including Ainu and Okinawa textiles, see William Jay Rathbun, Beyond
the Tanabata Bridge: Traditional Japanese Textiles (New York: Thames and Hudson,
1993).
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