Passed
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Description
41"w. x 27"h. x 23"d. palace. 14" imperial couple. The palace of classic Genji-style open roofed design with wood frame construction,tsudare roll-up screeen front and sides crafted of bamboo and edged in silk brocades with y_soku patterning,has an inner back wall composed of four fusuma door panels of paper with scattered gold leaf accents and embossed metal door pulls; side planges of wood with inserted sugi-do door panels with raised and painted designs of chrysantheums,metal pulls,bosses and supporting hardware; and top rails also of wood with crisscrossing open ranma transome panels,the unusual multi-tiered tatami dais with three removable tatami mats edged in a vertically striped ungenberi silk brocade and each resting on a woven mat ground. The dairi-bini (imperial couple) are presented in the semi-formal Noshu-y_soku style,each with well-rendered carved wood head,shell white (gofun) finish with painted features including blackened teeth and skybrows,signifying their imperial rank,real human hair drawn into a long back braid for the female secured with gold leafed paper cuffs,and a topknot for the cap with lacquered paper court cap with a gauze ei tail. The o-bina male is wearing a white double brocade (futae orimono) surcoat over a diamond patterned figured silk under robe with red inner sleeves. The me-bina female wears green double brocade outer robe with a tatewaku undulating line pattern with scattered roundels and crimson trousers. The prince and princess pair with faces in an overly round manner to convey a sense of youth,with blackened teeth and skybrows of the imperial classes and hands rendered with long,attenuated fingers,are dressed in the informal kariginu y_soku style,designed as youthful attendant figures for the Imperial couple; the male wearing jointed sleeve silk outer coat with long-tailed bird and paulownia design and banded silk sodegukuri sleeve draw cords and a lacquered paper eboshi court cap. The female me-bina wearing a matching patterned outer coat over an unusual brown birodo velvet under kimono and crimson trousers. Condition: generally excellent. Comments: Japanese,late Edo/early Meiji era,mid-19th century,the palace bears the seal of the maker on the under side. Yusoku-bina were developed in the 18th century to closely mimic actual imperial court costuming; more subdued than other hina forms,y_soku-bina were largely patronized by the imperial and samurai elite rather an the merchant classes,and unlike other styles which morphed over time,shifting with popular fads,y_soku artisans maintained strict traditional forms. Value Points: grand and fine early Y_soku-bina Palace and dairi-bina with maker's seal on palace. The Palace set was gifted to the Cleveland Museum of Art in 1916 by the important Kyoto antique and art importer Yamanaka and Company.