From December 2023 to February 2024, the Marubeni Gallery will be the site of consecutive exhibitions of noble women’s costumes of the Heian period and of the Momoyama period. Each piece has been meticulously recreated or reproduced by first-rate artisans after careful background research by specialists in the records of those periods.
This first exhibition will take place with the full cooperation of Jissen Women’s University, who spent five years recreating the costume of the lady of Akashi, working from the description of her dress in “Spring Shoots II,” Chapter 35 of The Tale of Genji.
This effort was part of their university initiative “Creating an Interdisciplinary and International Base for the Study of The Tale of Genji," which in turn is part of the nation-wide “Private University Research Branding Project.” The exhibition also marks a major contribution to scholarship and the verification and transmission of ancient artisanal techniques. We hope you will enjoy the rare experience of the never-before-seen recreated court women’s costume of the Heian period.