Large Wedding Kimono With Embroidered Silk Fans, Uchikake - Japan - 20th Century

Magnificent wedding kimono, known as Uchikake, circa 1950 (JAPAN - SHOWA period), in polychrome and gold silk brocade depicting a waltz of colorful, gold, and silver fans on a pearly white background. It is lined with bright red silk and weighted with cotton at the bottom to ensure a perfect drape. It bears a signature on the reverse (its provenance is the Hayashi kimono house, a historic firm founded in Tokyo in 1913). In Japan, wearing a wedding kimono with embroidered colorful fans is highly symbolic. These motifs promise the couple a happy, prosperous, and lucky future. This kimono is in excellent condition and, with the addition of a simple bamboo pole, can be transformed into a potential decorative centerpiece.