This extraordinary silk hitoe kimono represents a stunning achievement in mid-20th century Japanese textile artistry, where the entire garment transforms into a living aquatic tableau. The kimono's most remarkable feature is its masterful use of woven gradations that create the illusion of water in motion, shifting from deep indigo through ethereal sky blues to luminous whites, evoking the play of light beneath a water's surface. Swimming through this liquid landscape are wild carp (nishikigoi), rendered with exceptional technical skill using silver metallic thread inserts that catch and reflect light like actual fish scales moving through water. The carp, revered in Japanese culture as symbols of perseverance, strength, and good fortune, appear to glide effortlessly across the fabric's surface, their forms emerging and disappearing into the fluid background in a manner that suggests the Impressionist movement's fascination with capturing light and movement.

The close-up details reveal the sophisticated weaving technique that creates each carp's distinctive scaled texture through thousands of tiny metallic threads, demonstrating the nishijin-ori tradition's pinnacle of technical mastery. The artistic composition reflects Japanese aesthetic principles of ma (negative space) and wabi-sabi (finding beauty in imperfection), where the seemingly random placement of the carp creates natural rhythm and balance. This garment exemplifies the post-war period's continuation of traditional Japanese textile arts while embracing more naturalistic and flowing design sensibilities, moving away from the rigid geometric patterns of earlier eras toward a more organic, almost painterly approach that celebrates both technical virtuosity and poetic interpretation of the natural world.

Measurements:  49 inches (125 cm) from sleeve-end to sleeve-end and standing at 62 inches (157 cm) in height

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