Japanese Ceremonial Silk Lumbar Pillow – The Imperial Hōō Legend, Phoenix and Butterfly in Gold and Crimson

A lumbar pillow cover in Japanese ceremonial silk, cut from a Nishijin fukuro obi (袋帯): the hōō (鳳凰, phoenix of peace) in flight across radiant gold, banded with butterflies (chō 蝶) and kiku (菊). Envelope-pocket back, no metal against the silk; 50 × 31 cm (also 36 × 31 cm). For a single radiant gesture. Spot clean only. Unrepeatable, finished at the Renaras atelier, Amsterdam.

Hōō. The phoenix of harmonious rule. The bird that appears only in times of peace, woven here in flight across a radiant gold ground — banded with butterflies and chrysanthemums, the iconography of transformation and longevity.

The silk is radiant gold, woven in the Nishijin Jacquard tradition. The hōō phoenix soars across the field in horizontal bands of rust-red, deep purple and matcha green. Around it, chō butterflies — the symbol of transformation and transient beauty — and kiku chrysanthemums — the imperial flower of longevity — carry the eye through a composition of unusual narrative density. The format echoes the emakimono picture-scroll tradition. The gold gives the composition its weight. The crimson and purple bands give it its rhythm.

A pillow for jewel-toned velvet, carved walnut, the warm neutrals of a room that welcomes one deliberate moment of opulence — quiet beauty for ordinary moments, gathered around a shared table.

The face is the original silk, backed in undyed linen. Envelope pocket closure. No metal touches the visible silk.

Renaras: Japanese ceremonial silk, reimagined for daily life.

Each piece arrives with its own passport from the atelier — a small handmade record of the silk's first life and its transformation, signed and dated in Amsterdam.

One silk. One story. One piece. Never repeated.