人文科学研究院 Kyushu University, Graduate School of Humanities
人文学国際研究センター International Research Center for the Humanities

Transformation of East Asian Cloth:
Transnational and Translocal Textiles
International Research Center for the Humanities 2020–21 Public Lecture Series
Organizers: the International Research Center for Japanese Humanities, Kyushu University
in collaboration with the Kyoto National Museum

All presentations will be in Japanese in a 70-minute Zoom Webinar; Q&A follows each lecture(s) event.
Registration details are located at the bottom of this page.

Session 1 | January 16, 2021 10:00 – 11:10 (JST), 1:00 – 2:10 (UTC)Transnational and Translocal Buddhist Textiles:Kesa (Buddhist Robes) and Uchishiki (Altar Cloths) (50 mins.)
Speaker: Yamakawa Aki, Chair of Dept. of Decorative and Applied Arts and Curator of Textiles,
Kyoto National Museum

Session 2 | January 23, 2021 10:00 – 11:10 (JST), 1:00 – 2:10 (UTC)

Textile Transformations in Chanoyu, the Way of Tea (25 mins.)
Speaker: Satoh Rumi, Curator, The Gotoh Museum

Early Imported Textiles in Japan:
A Look at Gold Brocade Examples (25 mins.)
Speaker: Kuwabara Yuzuko, Research Fellow, Kyushu National Museum

Please register using the link or the QR code.
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_4vj2CTuIRPiKqi6PITglGQ

Important Cultural Property, Priest’s Robe (Kesa) with Peony Scrolls and Crossed Vajras, known as “Dream Robe”
14th century. Silk plain weave damask with twill patterning, gold painting. Kyoto National Museum

“Transnational and Translocal Buddhist Textiles: Kesa (Buddhist Vestments) andUchishiki (Altar Cloths)”

The Buddhist robe known as kesa (Sanskrit: kāṣāya) is a monastic vestment that also can serve as a material certificationof the inheritance of the Buddhist dharma (teachings). Due to this profound significance there remain many kesa preservedin Japanese temples as heirloom treasures. Many of these kesa are dharma transmission robes (denpō-e) that Chinesepriests bestowed on their Japanese disciples as important symbols. Such examples reveal that the original meaning ofthese textiles has been preserved even through their transnational movement from China to Japan.
In contrast, textiles known as uchishiki, cloths made to cover Japanese Buddhist altars, were traditionally made from thecloth of repurposed everyday garments of the deceased. Such textiles were never moved from Japan, but their function
was transformed from the realm of secular society to the realm of the sacred. Here, by examining both textile forms, I will
focus on the transgression of borders by Buddhist textiles.
Dr. Yamakawa Aki is a specialist in the history of East Asian textiles. She earned her M.A. in art
history from Kobe University and her Ph.D. from Ochanomizu University. Previously, she was Curator
at the Tokugawa Art Museum. Since 2001, she is Curator in charge of textiles at the Kyoto NationalMuseum, where she is currently Chair of the Department of Decorative and Applied Arts and Chairof the Department of Exhibitions. She is also Visiting Professor, Graduate School of Human andEnvironmental Studies, Kyoto University. Her publications include the book Chūkinsei senshokuhin
no kisoteki kenkyū (Basic Research on Medieval and Early Modern Textiles) (Tokyo: Chūō Koron
Bijutsu Shuppan, 2015).

“Textile Transformations in Chanoyu, the Way of Tea”

The traditional Japanese cultural practice of chanoyu, the Way of Tea, is a comprehensive art form comprising everythingfrom the architecture of special tearooms, the preparation of kaiseki cuisine, to the careful selection of tea utensils. Thiscare and attention also extends to the textiles used in chanoyu, as seen in mounting fabrics used for hanging scrolls andon the pouches used to house precious tea containers and tea bowls. It is notable that the meibutsu, or “famous utensils,”
that have been prized over the centuries are often accompanied by imported fabrics from China, India, Persia, orelsewhere, imbuing them with a particularly international ambiance.
Such preference for transnational assemblages is a distinctive part of Japanese culture. This lecture will examine theimported textiles that are the subject of connoisseurship by tea practitioners, including so-called meibutsu gire (celebratedtextiles). It will also discuss the demand for trade textiles to decorate the tearoom and discuss examples of meibutsu girethat were particularly influential in the Edo period.
Satoh Rumi is curator of the Gotoh Museum. Her research interests have focused particularly on
the demand for and influence of imported textiles in Japan. She has curated a number of major
special exhibitions for the Gotoh Museum, including Meibutsu gire (From Loom to Heirloom: The
World of Meibutsu-gire Textiles) in 2001, Kamakura Engakuji no meihō (Forming Emptiness: ZenMasterpieces from the Engaku Temple, Kamakura) in 2006, Kowatari sarasa (Sarasa: Flowers of theTextile Trade) in 2008 and “Embroidered Silk Patchwork Ōfukusa (Wrapping Cloth)” in Kokka (No.
1494, 2020, Special Issue: The Founding of Engaku-ji) and Meibutsu gire no kenkyū (Research onCelebrated Meibutsu gire Textiles) (co-author, Kokusho Kankokai, 2018).

“Early Imported Textiles in Japan: A Look at Gold Brocade Examples”

Many of the fabrics classified in Japan today as meibutsu gire (celebrated textiles) are woven with gold threads. This
presentation will look at the history of the glittering gold brocaded (kinran) textiles made to accompany and house tea
utensils used in chanoyu. The oldest extant Chinese textiles incorporating gold threads are not brocaded but instead
embroidered or woven in tapestry weave. From around the Tang dynasty, however, a new type of textile was developedin which the gold threads would be woven into fabric as supplementary brocading wefts. It is this textile with gold
supplementary patterning that we refer to today in Japan as kinran. This lecture will investigate how the creation of gold
brocaded textiles influenced textile history and their subsequent developments over time.
Dr. Kuwabara Yuzuko is Research Fellow in charge of textiles in the Curatorial Division, Kyushu
National Museum. She received her M.A. and Ph.D. in Art History from the Graduate School of
Humanities at Kwansei Gakuin University. Previously she served as Curatorial Assistant for the Kwansei
Gakuin University Museum, both before and after it opened in 2014. She also worked as Curator for
Byōdoin Museum Hōshōkan before moving to her current post in 2018.
Background image: Fragment of “Tomita Kinran,” from a set of Meibutsu Gire (Celebrated Textiles) formerly owned by the Maeda Clan.
15th century, China. Silk twill with gold supplementary weft patterning. Kyoto National Museum.