Brocade Paintings and Screens

Extraordinary contemporary Japanese traditional extremely detailed handcrafted decorative art form using high quality silk and brocade fabrics, known as oshie (literally, “pressed pi...

Extraordinary hand crafted Japanese contemporary traditional oshie decorative art piece with a stunning three-dimensional effect. This is a traditional Japanese handcrafted wall decorative art form using high quality silk and brocade fabrics, known as oshie (literally, “pressed pictures”) that goes back to the Edo period (1603-1868). It is said this art form was born of the reluctance of ladies of the court to discard the magnificent silk kimonos and brocaded obi they had donned for a lifetime. The solution was to recycle these opulent fabrics into stunning works of art. Oshie resembles a carefully crafted very intricate jigsaw puzzle comprising numerous intricate pieces of kimono fabric padded with slightly differing thicknesses of cotton and painstakingly glued and ironed individually. All those tiny pieces are then glued one by one on a custom-made board making sure each piece lands on the exact right place making sure that the right pieces overlap the lower pieces to create an undulating three-dimesional picture. Highly detailed oshie pieces contain hundreds of small pieces that are expertly aligned to recreate even the minutest details of the the painting In the final process. Facial features are painted in miniature-like exactitude. The end product is an awe-inspiring piece with a surprising three-dimensional effect. This magnificent piece depicts a fascinating scene of a lady of privilege wearing an exquisitely brocaded headdress and overcoat to protect herself from the cold. Each dainty step she takes exposes the folds of her multi-layered kimono in a scene reminiscent of the ladies of the ancient imperial court of Japan. The creator of this signed piece has prided herself in using exquisite antique and vintage kimono and obi...