Fragment of a Kimono

CC0 Public Domain Designation

Edo period (1615–1868), 1675-1725

Japan

This fragment combines three different methods of patterning: weaving, dyeing, and embroidery. No single technique overpowers the others, creating a harmonious whole. While the beauty of the decoration and colors can still be appreciated in the textile’s fragmentary state, the precise meaning of the embroidered character in the center has been lost: It cannot be interpreted because it has been separated from the rest of the textile and, therefore, the rest of the text.

Status: On View, Gallery 58
Department: Textiles

Title: Fragment of a Kimono
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 1675–1725
Medium: Silk, twill damask weave; embroidered with silk and gilded-lacquered-paper-strip-wrapped cotton in satin stitches and laid work and couching; stenciled; mounted on paper, inscribed in ink
Dimensions: 36.8 × 23.5 cm (14 1/2 × 9 1/4 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Martin A. Ryerson
Reference Number: 1922.4248
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/95972/manifest.json

Melinda Watt, “Fragmentary Understanding: Textiles in the Encyclopedic Museum,” in On Loss and Absence: Textiles of Mourning and Survival, eds. Isaac Facio, Nneka Kai, L Vinebaum, and Anne Wilson, exh. cat. (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2025), 100, fig. 8 (ill.).

Art Institute of Chicago, Elizabeth F. Cheney and Agnes Allerton Textile Galleries, On Loss and Absence: Textiles of Mourning and Survival, Sept. 6, 2025–Mar. 15, 2026, cat.

S. Nomura, Kyoto, Japan; sold to Martin A. Ryerson (1856-1932), Chicago, by Feb. 17, 1922 [incoming receipt R33, Feb. 17, 1922]; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1922.

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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.