Buddhist Surplice (Kesa) (early 1900s): Art, History and Details

Buddhist Surplice (Kesa) (early 1900s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The kesa is a Buddhist monk’s vestment worn folded and draped over one shoulder, and fastened over the chest. In keeping with the austere conditions of monastic life, kesa were traditionally fashioned from remainders of donated garments sewn together into a series of columns. The wider, central column symbolizes the Buddha. The squares with golden roundels in each corner represent the deities who guard the four directions, while the two at the top on either side of the central column symbolize attendant bodhisattvas, or the Nio, guardians who protect the Buddhist Law. This kesa is sewn from a textile with a butterfly and "eight bridges" (yatsuhashi) pattern.

Object facts

• Title: Buddhist Surplice (Kesa)
• Date: early 1900s
• Culture: Japan, Meiji period (1868–1912)
• Type: Garment
• Technique: silk with supplementary weft, brocaded; metal thread
• Dimensions: Average: 116.9 x 193 cm (46 x 76 in.)
• Collection: Textiles
• Department: Textiles
• Accession number: 1916.1338

Collection credit

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Wade

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.