429 Men's Black Crested Habutai Haori

This is a black crested haori made of Gosen Habutae silk from Gosen City, Niigata Prefecture, featuring five family crests of Maru ni Ken Katabami (Ken Katabami within a circle).

The texture is smooth and the fabric is firm, characteristic of Gosen Habutae silk.

There are five Maru ni Ken Katabami family crests.

The Ken Katabami crest is shaped like a heart-shaped three-leaf clover with swords extending between each leaf.

In the Katabami crest, the leaves are positioned upwards. In the Ken Katabami crest, the positions of the leaves and swords are reversed, with the swords pointing upwards.

A clover is similar to the Katabami leaf, but the Katabami leaf is heart-shaped, while the clover leaf is oval.

The裏地 (ura-ji, lining) of the haori features a fabric called Shuchin which depicts the Zen Buddhist temple Ginkaku-ji (Jisho-ji) of the Rinzai school of Kennin-ji.

Shuchin (朱珍) can also be written as 繻珍.
It is a type of brocade woven on a satin weave ground, with multi-colored weft threads creating patterns.

Many of these fabrics are made with a five-harness satin weave, but some are made with an eight-harness satin weave.
This fabric is a five-harness satin weave (see photos 8-10).

Furthermore, while Edo period fabrics were mostly woven with the e-nuki (絵緯) technique where the pattern threads float on the surface, since the Meiji era, it has become common to use karami-date (搦み経, auxiliary warp threads to hold down the e-nuki) to secure the e-nuki.

E-nuki is a weaving technique where the warp and weft threads are interlaced in a way that minimizes the visibility of the intersections, allowing either the warp or weft threads to float on the surface for extended lengths.

This technique creates a luxurious and high-quality fabric for Shuchin.

The e-nuki is woven with a pattern that is created by interlacing the weft threads at longer intervals than usual, rather than closely with the warp threads, resulting in a voluminous pattern (see photos 11, 12).

Additionally, e-nuki uses thick, low-twist threads. When weaving patterns with low-twist threads, the silk's natural luster appears more prominently in the patterned areas compared to using twisted threads.

Dimensions (in cm):
Haori length (back): 101
Sleeve length (total): 64
Sleeve width: 32
Sleeve depth: 52
Back width: 29.5
Front width: 18.5

There is some darkening on the back crest.
There is a faint stain on the right side of the haori lining (see photos 4, 5).

We have checked for stains and dirt as thoroughly as possible, but please understand that there may be oversights.

The images are taken with a digital camera. Please note that colors may appear differently depending on your monitor.

Photos 9-12 are magnified images taken with a USB microscope.