Ainu Robe

As Japanese cotton became more affordable, garments known as chikarkarpe, meaning "our embroidered thing," were developed by substituting cotton for attush (elm-bark cloth); Ainu often used old Japanese kimonos or yukata for the base fabric. The use of dark strips around the neck, front opening, sleeves, and hem of a garment was retained, but embroidery became more complex. The aesthetics of combining the base garment pattern with the embroidery created an unending challenge for the innovative Ainu textile artist.

(Ainu: Spirit of a Northern People. Arctic Studies Center. Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History)

Collected by Frederick Starr, Porosaru

Brooklyn Museum of Art
Ainu: Spirit of a Northern People. Arctic Studies Center. Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

Collected in 1904.