Kyoto Embroidery

Embroidery, one of the world’s oldest decorative techniques, was introduced to Japan in the sixth century, about 1,500 years ago. It first arrived in Japan in the form of embroidered Buddha images when Buddhism was introduced to Japan. The oldest surviving embroidery work in Japan is the famous Tenjūkoku shūchō (Embroidery of Long Life in Heaven, owned by Chūgū-ji Temple) commissioned by Prince Shōtoku’s wife Tachibana no Ōiratsume in memory of the Prince after his passing. Embroidery techniques were brought to Kyoto when the capital was transferred there in 794, thereby establishing the foundation of Kyoto embroidery tradition, which continues to today. During the Heian period when native Japanese culture flourished, embroidery was widely used as to decorate clothing such as elements of the jūnihitoe (twelve-layered ceremonial robes worn by female aristocrats). From the end of the Heian period to the Kamakura period (1100s and 1200s) the Japanese were preoccupied with the coming of mappō (the end of the era of Buddhist law), and embroidered Buddha images were popularly made as an act of Buddhist virtue in hopes of going to Paradise after death. During the Muromachi period (around the fourteenth century) embroidery was added to garments used in folk entertainment, such as Noh theater costumes, and later used as designs that adorned beautiful kosode kimonos from the Azuchi-Momoyama period (around the sixteenth century) to the Edo period (from the seventeenth century to mid-nineteenth century). As a traditional technique, Kyoto embroidery has thus been continually employed to accommodate different purposes throughout history. 

How embroidered painting was born in Japan has to do with the embroidery design made by Kyoto artist, who, like embroidery artisans, also lost their patrons in the Meiji period. Designs by top-ranking artists like Kishi Kikudō (1826-1897), Imao Keinen (1845-1924), and Takeuchi Seihō (1864-1942) were combined with the master embroidery skills cultivated since the Edo period. Thus, pre-modern Japanese embroidery fabulously made with great mastery was born. On the left is a Japanese painting by Takeuchi Seihō and on the right is the embroidered version. While the design is faithfully kept unchanged, we can see differences in the way the design is presented through brushwork and by threads. New motifs also began to be used for Japanese painting, including Japanese native flora and fauna as well as landscapes, while animals, portraits and other motifs found in western painting were also being used.

To create such beautiful embroidery, the best equipment is necessary. For instance, the embroidery frame for keeping the fabric in place, the needle, the spools of silk, gold and twisted threads, implements for twisting threads, and so forth; each item being carefully handmade by artisans. These tools that have made embroidery possible have remained much the same as the tools made and used in the Edo period. Tokuda Shōten continues to make embroidery tools today. The traditional shop is full of embroidery frames (assembling type), needles, spools, and thread-twisting machines, among others.

Tools are made and distributed by tool artisans, while threads are made and distributed by thread artisans. Omoto Shōten is probably Japan’s only embroidery thread shop that sells silk threads. The shop has an overflowing variety of silk threads, from fresh threads waiting to be dyed to those dyed in various colors. Today, orders not only come from around Japan, but also from faraway countries such as Arab and European countries. Silk threads continue to be sold by the weight using a scale, as was done in the past. These tools and materials are vital in the continuation of Kyoto embroidery as a skill.

　Kyoto embroidery was designated National Traditional Craft by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) in 1976. Currently, there are thirty-eight artisans designated as artisans of traditional crafts, with one artisan being the holder of Important Intangible Cultural Property (Living National Treasure). Beautiful embroidery: how it adorns the kimono and small accessories so adorable one simply wants to have them. Today, artisans continue to create a wide range of products using Kyoto embroidery which present the unique expressions and three-dimensional forms only possible through embroidery.