Noh Theatre robe

Nog Theatre robe, 17th century, Japan. Nog Theatre robe, 17th century, Japan. Courtesy Cleveland Museum of Art, acc. no. 1974.36.

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio, houses a robe for an actor in the Japanese Noh theatre. it dates to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and is made of silk with silk thread embroidery and gold leaf applications. The robe measures 164 x 138 cm.


The robe is embroidered with satin and outline stitches and couching. The decoration includes weeping cherry trees and irises in the snow. The gold leaf decoration would indicate that the male actor wearing this robe (which was worn underneath another garment) was playing a female role.

See also the Noh Theatre robe now housed in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (acc. no. T.297-1963).

Cleveland Museum of Art online catalogue (retrieved 6th September 2017).

WV

Last modified on Sunday, 26 August 2018 11:27