Kosode with Alternating Blocks of Flowers and Plants

This kosode, or small-sleeved kimono, has flowers symbolizing the seasons embroidered in four large quadrants on a background of irregularly placed gold and silver leaf, displaying early spring plums, late spring wisteria, autumn maples, and winter snow-laden bamboo. If we follow the nomenclature used in Muromachi-period documents describing kosode designs by the large partitions on the back, such as “eight block,” this is a “four-block” kosode. For those used to looking at modern kimono, the sleeves seem remarkably narrow, but this characteristic typifies kosode tailoring up through the Momoyama period.
The bold stylized flowers are filled with movement, overflowing with great life energy. The textural style of the embroidery derives from the float stitch (watashinui) where long parallel threads pass from edge to edge of each figure, tiny stitches being made only along the outline. Abrupt color changes within one flower petal or leaf enhances the long floats.
Beyond covering the body to protect it, garments have come to incorporate motifs that carry felicitous meanings. This kosode with scenes spanning the whole year, like many similar “Flowers and Birds of the Four Seasons” paintings of the same period, may well represent the ideal of the four seasons burgeoning with life energy.