Japanese robe or dressing gown

From 1609, the Netherlands maintained exclusive trade relations with Japan for a period of almost 250 years. This made it possible to exchange gifts such as books and textiles. From the seventeenth century on, the so-called Japonsche rock (Japanese robe) was a much-loved garment. This comfortable dressing gown for gentlemen was originally worn only indoors or at informal events. The form of the gown is derived from the traditional kimono with shawl collar, but it lacks the typical long sleeves. The padded dressing gown in the collection of the Centraal Museum is made of light-blue silk and is partly hand-painted and partly printed. The gown was probably decorated using the shiborizome (tie-dye) and katazome (stencil) techniques. For the latter technique, stencils cut from mulberry leaves are fixed to the textile. The textile is then coated with a paste of steamed rice flour and rice bran. The stencils are then removed and the textile dried and coated again, this time with a glue-like fluid obtained from soybeans. In Japanese, the combination of several techniques was poetically referred to as tsujigahana (‘flowers at crossings’). At first glance, the pattern of large and small flowers seems to repeat itself, but a closer look reveals that each flower is different and that various butterflies and dragonflies are depicted as well. One or two flowers can be identified with some certainty, such as the chrysanthemum and the Paulownia. The decoration also includes a single bolt of lightning, which is the only motif that has sharp edges.