[Essay] Four-Horseman Lion-Hunting Pattern Brocade (Shiki Shishi-gari Monkin)

[Essay] Four-Horseman Lion-Hunting Pattern Brocade (Shiki Shishi-gari Monkin)

I cannot forget the Four-Horseman Lion-Hunting Pattern Brocade that I read about in a Japanese class long ago.
A single piece of cloth told the story of humanity.

When I heard the term "National Treasure," I only had the image of something old and magnificent.

However, the piece of cloth I encountered in that class was different.
Its name was the Four-Horseman Lion-Hunting Pattern Brocade.

At first, I just thought it was a difficult name.
But the more I researched it, the more I realized this cloth wasn't just a textile; it was humanity itself.

—

Inside a single circle, there are four knights.

They are riding winged horses, turning back to shoot arrows at a lion.
In the center is a single tree.

Symmetrical.
Beautiful.

But that is not what surprised me.

—

There is no pattern on this cloth that could have been created by the Japanese alone.
The figure of the king hunting the lion is Persian.

The pattern traveled the Silk Road, was woven in China, and came to Japan over a thousand years ago.

In other words, a journey of thousands of kilometers is woven into a single piece of cloth.

—

What is interesting is that the Silk Road was not a path that only transported "things."

What was transported were values, beauty, symbols of power, myths, designs, and the sense of what is "cool."

We have been importing culture for a long time.
However, we do not imitate it exactly as it is.

The Japanese always process it in a Japanese way.

Therefore, this cloth is not Persian, not Chinese, and not Japanese.
It was all of them.
—

Culture is mysterious.

It can cross borders.
It can cross languages.

It can cross religions.

It can cross thousands of years.

But people are surprisingly unaware of that.

—

Looking at this cloth, I thought: humanity has done more than just fight since ancient times; we have imitated, learned, admired, and inherited.
That is likely how the world has gradually become richer.
—
That is why I do not want to call the Four-Horseman Lion-Hunting Pattern Brocade a "National Treasure."
Of course, it is a national treasure, but that is too small a label.

I think this is a single work of art that humanity has co-created over a thousand years.

Even though it is cloth, human history was woven into it.

That is incredibly cool.

　
—

And it would be a waste to just keep it tucked away like this.

Just because it is a national treasure, it is sad to only look at it from the other side of a glass case.
It is a pattern that has passed from person to person and country to country for over a thousand years.

If so, I want to inherit it now.
And in a form I can use every day.

A necktie?
No.

A T-shirt?
That is too common.

If I am going to do it, I want to wear it in the most personal way possible.
In that case, it has to be



pants!

This is a gift for Tamako-chan 🎁😆✨

This is also a gift for Fuji-san 🎁😊✨