Japanese gold

Associated media

In a new exhibition, ‘Threads of Silk and Gold: Ornamental Textiles from Meiji Japan’, the astonishing skills of nimble fingered needle-workers of the Meiji era (1868–1912), usually making Japanese kimonos of the highest quality, had their talent put to a different use, to boost and encourage Japan’s export trade; in the making of tapestries, screens, wall hangings, portraits, landscapes and nature studies, all bound for the European market. These works of art – paintings in silk thread – were highly sought after, particularly by ‘aesthetes’ in Britain and France during the craze for ‘Japonisme’. The Ashmolean Museum has the honour of holding the first major exhibition dedicated to the art of Japanese Meiji textiles to be held outside Japan (on until 27 January 2013). Alongside the Ashmolean’s own collection of Meiji ornamental textiles, 40 rare examples have been lent by the Kiyomizu-Sannenzaka Museum, in Kyoto, Japan.

‘Threads of Silk and Gold: Ornamental Textiles from Meiji Japan’

Ashmolean Museum
Beaumont Street
Oxford 0X1 2PH

9 November 2012 – 27 January 2013
Tickets: £6/£4 concessions
Open: Tues–Sunday 10 a.m.–6 p.m., Bank Holiday Monday 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
Ashmolean Museum is closed 24–26 December 2012.

Rosalind Ormiston
Independent art historian