Screen with Edo-period kosode fragments featuring chrysanthemum, rock, and fence design

This two-panel screen made in the twentieth century includes a silk kimono remnant from the Edo period (1615–1868). It is shaped into a kosode-style (literally “small sleeve”) kimono and is applied to look like it is hanging on a lacquered wood stand. The lacquer is applied directly onto gold paper, creating a three-dimensional, almost sculptural painting. This is an ingenious way to make use of the vintage fabric remnants—preserving evidence of a significant aspect of Edo-period history.

Nomura Shojiro, a Kyoto textile collector, designed and had made many screens in this fashion between about 1900 and 1943. There are 106 known so-called Nomura screens. One hundred are in the collection of the National Museum of History in Japan, and six are in private collections in Japan and the United States. Four, including this one, have been lent to the Asian Art Museum by direct descendants of Nomura, now residents of the Bay Area.