Unlined Summer Kimono (Hito-e) with Plovers in Flight over Stylized Waves

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Unlined, light and airy summer kimonos are often decorated with motifs for their cooling psychological effect. Here, violet and white plovers wheel and dive on a background of abstract peaked shapes that may be meant to represent waves or the drying fishnets found along the shores where plovers were plentiful. The violet plovers were embroidered in silk, while the white plovers were resist dyed on the dark ground and have tiny embroidered silver eyes. Similar patterns were popular in the second half of the Edo period (1615–1868), but the layout of the design was different and the depiction of the scene less stylized.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.

Metropolitan Museum of Art