Untitled - Heather James Fine Art

Embroidered Roundels of TurtlesJapan, 19th CenturySilk and Gold Thread Embroidery21 x 32 in.2138 / AS 1985Japan’s textile industry was one of the first to adopt Western science and technology, and thus the Meiji era produced some of the highestquality silk textiles. The engravings of oil paintings inspired the embroideries, with the artist of the painting and the artist at the textilefactory maintaining a close relationship. Japanese embroidery technique goes back more than one thousand years. It originated in Chinaand was eventually introduced to Japan by Korean artisans; around the same time Buddhism entered Japan. In Japan, colored silkswere embroidered with long soft stitches in untwisted silk threads. Flowers, birds, bold flowing lines, and abstract motifs are common inJapanese textiles, and the designs achieve a feeling of calm restraint through their spacious distribution. Also characteristic of Japanesetextiles is the use of gold and silver thread. The Japanese developed a special method of creating metal threads, in which a layer of goldor silver was deposited on to rice paper, which was then cut into fine strips and wrapped around a thread core.