Woman's Aigi (Inner Robe)

CC0 Public Domain Designation

Textiles

Edo period (1789–1868), late 1700s

Japan

This white design on a red background was created by tying portions of the white silk fabric into tiny knots that resisted the red dye. Here, the tying creates a pattern of tea plant blossoms floating on stylized currents of water. Producing such an intricate pattern was labor intensive and costly. The use of the color red for inner robes and linings has a long history in Japan, where the flash of a woman’s undergarment or lining is considered enticing.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Textiles

Title: Woman's Aigi (Inner Robe)
Place: Japan (Object made in)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: Made 1775–1800
Medium: Silk, satin damask weave; tye dyed; lining: silk, plain weave
Credit Line: Oriental Department Sundry Trust
Reference Number: 1940.1101
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/150960/manifest.json

Mary V. Hays and Ralph E. Hays, “Nô Drama Costumes and Other Japanese Costumes.” “Five Centuries of Japanese Kimono: On the Sleeve of Fondest Dreams.” Special issue, Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 18, 1 (1992): 40, 64, cat. no. 25, pl. 27 (ill.)
Iwao Nagasaki, Japanese Textile in American Collections (Tokyo: Shogakukan, Inc., 1995), 145, cat. no. 142 (ill.).

Art Institute of Chicago, Regenstein Hall, Five Centuries of Japanese Kimono: On this Sleeve of Fondest Dream, Mar. 7–June 7, 1992, cat.
Art Institute of Chicago, Department of Asian Art, Ando Gallery, Feb. 3-Apr. 12, 1999.
Art Institute of Chicago, Department of Asian Art, Ando Gallery, Oct. 28, 2003-Jan. 12, 2004.
Art Institute of Chicago, Elizabeth F. Cheney and Agnes Allerton Textile Galleries, Fabricating Fashion, Aug. 20, 2022–Jan. 2, 2023, no. cat.

Yamanaka and Company, Boston, MA, by Aug. 15, 1940 [incoming receipt R7208, Aug. 15, 1940; copy in curatorial object file]; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1940.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.