Foil

Print from the Kyosei Zuan (Designs of the Capital) collection, with two designs arranged horizontally with an inscription in kanji above each with the title. In the upper one on a black background, tree blossoms on misty forms in blue; in the lower one, large peonies surrounded by peacock tail feathers. \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. \The red flowers of the peony, which became so popular in Spain through Manila shawls, came to the Japanese imagination from China long before, in the eighth century. Symbol of good luck and prosperity, they soon became a favourite flower of painters and textile artisans. \Buddhists associate peacock feathers with accessibility, as the birds display them fully when they spread their tails. They also attribute significance to the birds' diet of poisonous plants, such as their ability to thrive in the face of suffering. \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, often showing 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 series of designs 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.