Uchikake

An uchikake of black figured silk with mandarin oranges and folded-paper butterflies, made in the late 18th or early 19th century and now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The uchikake is an outer robe worn open over a kimono, never belted, which is why it can carry a design as bold as this from collar to hem. Padding was added to its hem from the 18th century, seen here as the thick red edge. It survives today as the robe a bride wears over her white kimono at a traditional wedding.