Images(5)

Attush robe with blue stripes

Datelate 19th–early 20th century

PeriodMeiji period (1868-1912)

CultureAinu (Japanese)

MediumAttush (elm bark) fiber, cotton appliqué, and natural dyes

ClassificationTextiles

Credit LineMuseum purchase through the David J. Patten Asian Art Fund, 2020

Object number2020.25

This robe was made by a woman of the Ainu people, who are indigenous to northern Japan and eastern Siberia. The Ainu began producing and wearing this type of garment, called attush (or attus), made from a cloth woven from the bast fibers of the Manchurian elm (Ulmus laciniate) from around the 18th century. The bark is harvested from living trees and the fibers are stripped from its inner layers. Women were responsible for processing, weaving, sewing, and decorating the finished garment. The fibers are soaked in water, bleached in the sun, and then split into fine strands. These strands are knotted together to form a thread, which is woven on a backstrap loom into a golden-brown cloth. This example is woven with thin stripes of indigo dyed cotton thread. Attush robes for ceremonial wear had symmetrical decorations around the collar, sleeve openings, hems, and back with applique in contrasting cotton fabric, usually navy or black, and embroidery. Each garment is unique, made by an individual for a member of her family. Basic designs were passed from matrilineally, although women were encouraged to introduce their own variations into received patterns. The parenthesis-shaped motifs in the patterns are talismanic (or talismanic in origin), i.e. were intended keep the wearer safe, but they also express the maker’s aesthetic sensibility and display her skill. Over the Edo period (1615–1868), the Ainu traded with mainland Japanese, and were also subject to colonization and displacement as mainlanders sought access to the natural resources of their ancestral lands. During the Meiji period (1868–1912), as part of the process of modernizing and consolidating control over its territories, Japan adopted a formal policy to assimilate the Ainu. Today, there are very few native speakers of Ainu language and many cultural practices have been lost.

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