When Clothing Becomes Literature: A Uchikake Outer Robe Inspired by The Tale of Genji

A pale-blue uchikake robe from nineteenth-century Japan hides a literary world in its exquisite surface. Courtly shell-matching boxes, carriages and flowers point towards The Tale of Genji and the culture of the Heian aristocracy. How could clothing become a form of storytelling? Explore the textile techniques and subtle motifs through which Japanese dress carried literary memory and social identity.