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Buddhist altar cloth (uchishiki)
Japanese
Edo period
mid-19th century
Object Place: Japan
Medium/Technique
Silk twill-weave ground with silk and gilt paper strip discontinuous supplementary patterning wefts tied down with supplementary warps in twill-weave
Dimensions
134 x 133.5 cm (52 3/4 x 52 9/16 in.)
Credit Line
Denman Waldo Ross Collection
Accession Number02.474
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsAsia, Fashion and Textiles
ClassificationsTextiles
DescriptionBuddhist altar cloth (uchishiki) with design of four rows of peony roundels alternating in white and reddish-orange silk on a ground of stylized tortoise-shell pattern (bishamon-kikkô) in green silk and gilt paper strip discontinuous supplementary patterning wefts; lined with natural plain-weave hemp or linen; calligraphic inscription on back hand-painted in ink.
InscriptionsOn the back is a calligraphic inscription hand-painted in sumi which states that the cloth was donated in honor of the 350th anniversary of the death of Ren-nyo, a celebrated Buddhist priest, on March 15th, sometime in the 1860s.
ProvenanceDenman Waldo Ross Collection; gift of Denman Waldo Ross to the MFA on October 6, 1902