Sazaidö at the Five Hundred Rakan Temple

Catalog note / 解説

The long lines of handsome kasuri kimonos worn by two women viewing Mount Fuji add contrast to the rather plain temple balcony where they stand. The art of kasuri was introduced to Japan from the Ryukyu Islands (Okinawa) in the seventeenth century. When Japanese warriors of the Satsuma clan invaded and conquered Okinawa in 1609, they brought Okinawa's famed ramie textiles back to Satsuma (present-day Kagoshima prefecture) as tribute. Many of them were made by the kasuri technique, thus planting the seeds of this intricate dyeing process in mainland Japan. Kasuri fabric making was well developed in the Satsuma region by the mid-eighteenth century, and by Hokusai's and Hiroshige's time, it ha…