by Julia M Brennan and Anna Tendler Mulaney
In these hurried days leading up to the holidays, we invite you to slow down and engage in a little stitching meditation.
The elaborate overlaying patterns are applied with fine drawing or stencils, and a rice paste in a resist-dye method known as yuzen. Developed at the end of the 17th century, this technique of handcrafting elaborate cloth, sometimes imitates aristocratic brocades, is very time consuming and expensive, and today remains highly prestigious
Listen.
Pictured above is a late 19th c Meiji period Japanese uchikake, a ceremonial robe custom made for a bride. It is decorated with symbols from the golden age of the Heian Period (794–1185). Think Lady Murakasi’s epic romantic novel The Tale of Genji. The Heian Imperial Court was known for its luxurious ceremonies, romances, and exquisite arts. This highly stylish robe was worn publicly to show the sophistication and historic knowledge of the bride and her family. Even though the Heian period was long over, the public would have been able to ‘read’ this garment and be very impressed with the level of culture and arts.
Soften your gaze. Inhale patience.
Couching the gold metallic threads requires good eyesight and patience.
Exhale. Realign.
Tangled and disassociated threads are realigned, then re-stitched or couched using fine thread.
Like the courtly mannerisms of the Heian period, each repair stitch is a thoughtful meditative action to create something of beauty.
Meditation:
“…every stitch requires listening and responding to what the fabric might need…the action of looking, thinking, tending, touching, intuiting …entwines into an embodied knowledge, a soft technique, during which the ameliorative thread is sewn this way and that.”
(Manual RISD 2018, Liza Z. Morgan)
Below, note the family crest or kamon of the Tachibana clan—roundel with a blue flower on a white ground—this uchikake contains five. Treatment involves the delicate re couching around the hexagonal patterned central motif, or kikko or the tortoise of longevity. The floating rectangles are painted poems on mulberry leaves.
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- Cricket cage with a fan beside it adorned by a pair of geese, symbolizing faithfulness, returning every fall.
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- The pair of happy ducks above forecasts a happy marriage.
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- Sleeve of autumn flowers and seven grasses, with turning maples leaves, maiden flower, Chinese bell flower and pine boughs. Upper left is a mortar and pestle for mochi, and in the center is the inkstone for painting poem prayers.
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- Other side of the sleeve has plum blossoms, symbolizing bravery, and chrysanthemum symbol of longevity, in a floating world of sea waves and auspicious clouds.
Thank you for the gift of this exquisite bridal gown in which you explain what it is we are viewing. Not only beautiful in design but poetic and thought-provoking.
May this season of Advent in which we experience the joy of the coming Messiah remind us to watch and wait.
Blessings to you and yours this season,
Janenne
Thankyou so much Janenne for your lovely message. Wishing you a special and restful Advent and Christmas, with a little water to float on too. Julia
A whole world to spend time in. And a walk with the past. Think of the many hands. Thankyou
And a happy meditative Christmas to you and yours!
How lovely!
As a Conservator who has also had to manage symptoms of PTSD, I concur and appreciate this very much.
Lovely to know dear Kim and warm wishes for the holiday season. Julia
Beautifully done. Thank you for sharing. Curious if this beautiful wedding dress is still with the family or is in a collection on public display. Thank you
It is a personal piece and in our loving care until we conserve it. Come see us. Julia
Greetings Robert.
This is marianne. Indeed it is still with the family.
So very very beautiful and calming, Julia. Thanks for this, and for your many excellent prior emails !
Linda and I wish you and your family every good thing now, throughout 2020, and beyond.
Collegial hug
~John
John Scott in NYC