National Treasures & Important Cultural Properties
of National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, Japan

On the white nerinuki (a plain fabric woven with raw silk thread as the warp and processed silk thread as the woof), motifs of a snow-covered willow and fan paper are embroidered in a magnanimous manner and gold leaf paste is impressed on the spaces between them. For embroidery, wide stitches characteristic of the embroidery of the Momoyama period, over-sewing stitches and whipstitches are used. The design has the so-called shoulder-bottom structure, where motifs are arranged only in the shoulders and bottom areas partitioned off in the shape of suhama (a sandbar), which is a typical characteristic of nuihaku (a kimono where a combination of embroidery and gold/silver leaf is applied) of the Momoyama period.
Although the motifs are arranged close together in a limited space, it does not look crowded, but rather each design looks lively.