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

Trousers like these, called ue no hakama in Japanese, would have been worn by men as part of the formal court costume (J., sokutai). These are made of a colorful silk double weave with purple warps and white wefts, creating a small checkered ground pattern overlain with a separate pattern of floral medallions using different colored threads. Most trousers were not made with such flamboyant fabric. These are exceptional presumably because they were made as an enshrined treasure, an offering to a deity.