Tsukesage

A tsukesage of fine red silk crepe with white chrysanthemums on the sleeves and skirt, made between 1920 and 1940 and now in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. The tsukesage is the middle of the formality scale, a semi-formal kimono that is easy to confuse with the houmongi. The difference is in the placement: here the chrysanthemums stand in separate sprays on the sleeves and lower skirt, crossing only some of the seams, where a houmongi's design would sweep across all of them as one picture.