This haori represents a bold departure from traditional Japanese textile design, showcasing an almost avant-garde approach that anticipates modern artistic sensibilities. The dramatic vertical striping effect, created through sophisticated dye techniques, transforms the garment into a striking canvas of liquid color that cascades from purple at the shoulders through cream in the middle register to vibrant green at the hem. This vertical color progression evokes the natural gradations found in landscape painting, suggesting distant mountains dissolving into mist, or perhaps the reflection of sky and earth in still water.
The yuzen-painted floral garlands appear to float weightlessly against this atmospheric background, their circular compositions creating rhythmic punctuation points across the garment's flowing surface. The detail images reveal the extraordinary refinement of the painting technique, where peonies in deep burgundy, soft rose, and powder blue demonstrate the artist's mastery of tonal variation and dimensional modeling. Each bloom is rendered with naturalistic precision, yet their arrangement in perfect circles suggests a more decorative, almost Art Nouveau sensibility that speaks to cross-cultural artistic exchange during Japan's period of international engagement.
The overall composition creates a dreamlike quality that transcends conventional haori design, suggesting influences from both traditional Japanese concepts of seasonal transition and emerging modernist ideas about color field painting. The vertical striping technique creates an almost impressionistic effect where colors seem to bleed and merge organically, while the precisely painted florals maintain crisp definition against this atmospheric ground.
It measures 49 inches (124 cm) from sleeve-end to sleeve-end and stands at 40 inches (102 cm) in height.