Anonymous, Whose Sleeves? (Tagasode), Momoyama-Edo Period, late 16th-early 17th century

In the genre painting subject known as Ta-ga-sode [lit. another’s sleeves], the viewer is immediately confronted by the question: who is the wearer of these garments? The owner of these sumptuous belongings is expressed in absentia by the fashionable patterning and personal accessories surmounted on the garment stands. A contemporary audience would have immediately inferred the answer: a beautiful woman of distinguished taste from the pleasure quarters. Following a general trajectory towards abbreviation in the genre painting of the Edo period (1615-1868), these screens evoke the sensual milieu of the floating world (ukiyo), a by-word for the bourgeoning red-light district, the idealised beauty of courtesans, the dalliance of fleeting love and its erotic charge therewith, without face or figure.

Many of the genre paintings of Japan’s early modern period feature men and women dressed in kosode [lit. short sleeves] which, by the time of the Momoyama period (1568-1615), denoted a kimono with narrow hand openings that became the common outer garment for men and women of all classes. The townscape of Japan at the time would have seemed a rich tapestry of embroidered silk in motion. The regular and symmetrical designs of the earlier 17th century gave way to the bold and asymmetrical forms of the latter half of the century. Under the strict social structure of the Pax Tokugawa, sumptuary edicts and status were strongly enforced by way of fashion. It was most commonly the fashions of the unofficial world (oku), and thus free to experiment with abandon, denizens of the floating world and the demands of the merchant classes whom drove the many stylistic changes of the 17th century.

Despite the associations with the pleasure quarters, the theme of 'Whose Sleeves?' has roots in classical love poetry. The term was often used to imply a beautiful woman whose presence was longed for. The screens were thus given this name as the garments draped over a kimono rack hint of the beauty of the wearer. Poems on this theme can be traced by to the Heian period (794-1185), when the language of robes held particularly significance. It was custom for court women to veil their faces behind curtains, partitions or screens. A young inquisitive man might however spot the lady’s sumptuous robes and judge her aesthetic sophistication and amorous potential. During the Heian period, lovers also exchanged waka, thirty-one syllable court poetry, rich in insinuations, innuendos and veiled words for the intended reader to decipher. In this poetic context a woman who remained inaccessible might be suggested through the description of incense-scented robes – the notion of sleeves and their relation to the wearer being so poignant in the imagination that severe turmoil or distress is often signified by terms of phrase such as nururu sode [sleeves sodden ‘with tears’] or sode no tsuyukeki [sleeves still drenched with dew].

Here, an array of kosode, accessories and other garments are draped nonchalantly over three lacquer kimono stands (iko) on an abstracted ground of gold leaf squares. The plethora of patterns include roundels containing hanabishi, fan-shaped cartouches, stylised chrysanthemum heads over foliate scrolls, wisteria and tomoe crests, cherry blossoms and tortoise shell motifs. Gold pigment has been applied to suggest the textile technique suirihaku, or applied gold leaf on the garments. The artist has paid notable attention to the depicting correct orientation of the hanging robes: the decoration on the upper half of the garment hanging over the lacquer rails appears inverted to the lower half. To the lower right hangs a hakama [man’s formal divided skirt] in green silk weave, and on the very edge of the most central stand a tobacco pouch, pipe and netsuke in the form of a double gourd, overtly inferring the presence of a male in this household.