Foil

On a violet background, vertical lines of green bamboo with branches of flowering trees between them. In the foreground, large reishi mushrooms in blue or brown, sharply outlined in a darker shade of the same color. \Reishi or mannen take (ten thousand year mushroom) is the Japanese name for the mushroom that the Chinese call lingzhi (ganoderma family), the mushroom of immortality, a mushroom used in traditional Chinese medicine since ancient times (documented as early as the Eastern Han dynasty) and attributed with almost miraculous virtues. They grow on the base and stumps of deciduous trees, although nowadays the ones sold are cultivated. Its iconography is recurrent in oriental art as a symbol of longevity. \The bamboo is a plant of good auspice. \It is possible that in this design there is a play on words, since bamboo and mushroom are said the same (take). \Tree blossoms, especially cherry blossoms, are a major symbol in Japan. Japanese cherry trees are planted exclusively for their blossoms, as they do not produce edible fruit. As early as the 16th century, the Portuguese Luis Fróis wrote about Japanese cherry trees: "Our cherry trees bear many beautiful cherries; those of Japan bear very small and bitter cherries, and very beautiful flowers which the Japanese esteem. \The short life of flowers reflects the Buddhist idea that the world is a transitory illusion, and their fragility embodies the ideal of impermanence as a condition of beauty. As the lines of a famous poem by Motoori Norinaga (1730-1801) put it, if anyone asks about the soul of Japan, it is like the scent of cherry blossoms in the bright morning. \Books of this type were known in Japan as hinagata-bon (literally, books of beautiful forms), and began to be printed as early as the late 16th century so that customers could choose designs for their clothes. They usually showed an entire kimono per page, and their features remained unchanged with little change until the early 19th century. By the Meiji period (1868-1912), to which our books belong, the hinagata-bon had become more formally daring, and often showed designs asymmetrically and partially. These compendiums of textile motifs were changed every spring and autumn, and copies of the previous collection were resold on the second-hand market. Some came to the attention of Westerners, and thus a number of hinagata-bon have ended up in European and American collections, including that of the Costume Museum Library. \This wonderful five-volume design series entitled Nihon or Nippon, i.e. Japan, is curiously anonymous; there is no record of place of publication, date or publisher. However, its characteristics suggest that it was printed in Kyoto in the early years of the 20th century.