Threads of Silk and Gold: Ornamental Textiles from Meiji Japan Book

This book is a pioneering study of Japanese ornamental textiles made for the foreign market during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. These exquisite embroideries, resistdyed silks and velvets, tapestries and appliquéd works were an important feature of the Western fascination with all things Japanese at that time, winning numerous accolades at international fairs and being used to decorate homes across Europe and the United States. Yet since then they have been largely forgotten. This book, which will appeal to textile enthusiasts and those interested in Japanese art and Japonisme alike, celebrates these remarkable and undervalued textiles. It discusses their production techniques, iconography, patronage, and trade and demonstrates how Kyoto craftsmen created a modern art form by adapting their traditional skills to Western tastes. The book accompanies an exhibition of the same name opening at the Ashmolean Museum on 9 November 2012. Featuring textiles from the newly-formed collection of the Kiyomizu- Sannenzaka Museum in Kyoto and from the Ashmolean's own holdings, this is the first exhibition of Japanese ornamental textiles of the Meiji period (1868-1912) to be held outside Japan.Read More