iJapan Folk Crafts MuseumKomaba, Meguro
Textiles of Ryukyu Kingdom
This exhibition has ended.
Marking the museum's 90th anniversary, around 50 Ryukyu bingata and woven textiles from the collection, many linked to the Sho royal family of Okinawa.
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The robe on the leaflet's cover is white ramie, 143 by 126 centimetres, dyed in bingata with mist, pine-covered hills, a weeping cherry and wild geese. It belonged to Goeku Chosho, head of a branch of the Sho family that ruled the Ryukyu Kingdom.
The Mingeikan's Okinawan textiles are known for the everyday clothes Yanagi Soetsu bought at Naha's pre-war secondhand markets. Recent research found that about 50 pieces came from Mizutani Ryoichi, a Mingei Movement ally, and traced around 30 of those to Goeku's household. They form the core of the show, alongside robes the museum believes were worn by royals and high-ranking families. You walk past Yaeyama ikat in ramie and stripes woven from banana fibre knowing, for once, whose wardrobe they came from.
Adults pay ¥1,500, students ¥800, and junior-high pupils and younger go free. The catalogue (¥2,200) covers 64 textiles. The museum is seven minutes on foot from Komaba-Todaimae's west exit, closed Mondays, and the show ends 3 November.
Look for
The white bingata robe with wild geese
Look for the large ramie robe from the leaflet cover, dyed with mist, pine hills, a weeping cherry and geese, from Goeku's household.
The red striped robe
A red-ground garment with warp stripes, woven from banana fibre (basho) and silk in the 19th century and traced to Goeku Chosho.
The indigo robe with irises
An aigata robe dyed in indigo, with irises, flowing water and cherry blossoms on a dark blue ground, from the Goeku collection.
The yellow bingata vest
A short yellow bingata garment from the 18th or 19th century, patterned with a pavilion, peonies, pine and plum blossom.
The Yaeyama ikat robes
Two 19th-century ramie robes from the Yaeyama islands, one pale blue and one light indigo, with ikat patterns dyed into both warp and weft.
Good for
- Locals Who've Seen It All
- Nerding Out
With kids
Junior-high and elementary school pupils get in free.
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On now nearby
Image credits
4
- Japan Folk Crafts MuseumKamemaru2000 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
- The Beauty of Coolness: Edo-Tokyo Museum Glass Craft CollectionCourtesy of Edo-Tokyo Museum
- Suikoden: The Water Margin, Outlaws of the MarshCourtesy of Tokyo Station Gallery
- Masterpieces from the Itsuo Art Museum Collection: Buson, Go Shun, and the Art of TeaCourtesy of Suntory Museum of Art