Japanese Temple Cloth, Old Obi, silver brocade
The fabric is thick, silver brocade that appears to be taken from a Japanese woman's old obi from late Edo period. The liner is cotton. During the Edo period (1602-1868), there was a custom that the family of a deceased woman would donate her favorite kimono to the temple; some beautiful temple cloths were created from those wonderful fabrics. The custom was likely to have continued after the period. The design on the fabric is the four benevolent animals of Chinese mythology; qulin, dragon, totoise (has a dragon head here and carrying *Mt. Horai in his back) and Fenghuan (phoenix bird). They are all done with silver (tarnished to brown). The silver has paper backing which was rolled around the silk (or hemp) threads, then woven into the silk. All hand done. The use of hand made washi papers in textiles is fairly common in Japanese textiles. The silver (paper-backed) is cut by hand (practically cut with a knife and a ruler before the invention of cutting machines). 64" long x 62" wide.
