Noh theater robe (atsuita), 19th century, Japan, with an overall design of a tri-pronged torto
Noh theater robe (atsuita), 19th century, Japan, with an overall design of a tri-pronged tortoiseshell or sword tip motif (bishomon-kikkô) in red silk and gilt paper on the top half of the robe and red and yellow silk discontinuous supplementary patterning wefts on the bottom half. Along the upper front, upper back and sleeves are curved-top panels inside which are designs of dragon (ryû), Chinese lion (karashishi), crane (tsuru), phoenix (ho-o), tortoise (kame) and carp (tai), unicorn (kirin) and elephant/lion (baku) in purple, pink, blue, orange, green, and white silk and gilt paper discontinuous supplementary patterning wefts. There is a dark purple plain weave silk lining. Silk, gilt paper strips; twill-weave ground with discontinuous supplementary patterning wefts tied down with supplementary warps in twill-weave MFA. (William Sturgis Bigelow Collection) -- source link