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

Joku is the name for matting used for several purposes, including spreading on a desk to put the donated treasures on. As some sumi-ink inscriptions, such as hanadukue-joku (joku for desks for sutras and other Buddhist altar equipments), kyoudai joku (joku for sutra stands) and kouza (seat for lecturers), indicate, joku-s were sometimes made for desks, and sometimes for persons to sit on. Those joku-s use different materials for the filling according to the purposes. Those made to spread on objects, e.g., desks, use the woven mat(s) of soft rush or hemp cloth as the filling material. Colorful Japanese brocade is usually used as the front-side cloth, but there are some cases where fabrics with a twill weave are used instead. Dyed fabrics such as kyoukechi (textiles dyed by carved block resist) are also sometimes used. In many cases, koukechi (textiles dyed by bound resist) plain silk is used for the backside. The shape is usually rectangular, but there are also square and round ones. In Shosoin, there is an octagonal one made to fit the shape of the stand for donated treasures. Among these joku with different shapes, rectangular, square, octagon, and others, there are some with another characteristic; they have a frame made with another piece of cloth around the matting.
This joku is round shaped, which is not seen even in the Shosoin treasures. As the sumi-ink inscription on the backside says kyoudai- joku, it was used to put under the scrolls of sutras. Hemp cloth is used for the filling, usuhanada-ji (light cornflower blue base) plain silk is used for the front side, which is covered by the extremely thin sheet of silk with karahana-mon (Chinese floral pattern) dyed with the kyoukechi technique, koukechi plain silk with small meyui-mon (white-dotted pattern) is for the backside. The usuhanada-color of the fabric beneath appears elegantly through the silk cover thin like lace.