Japanese Ceremonial Silk Wall Tapestry – The Kin'un Emaki, Edo Townscape in Champagne Gold

The whole of Edo, woven into a single Fukuro-obi. The most complex textile in the collection.

The Kin'un Emaki is mounted from a Fukuro-obi (袋帯) — the double-layered ceremonial obi reserved for the most formal Japanese textile traditions. The original obi was woven in Nishijin Kinran (西陣金襴), with gold-foil-wrapped thread integrated into the warp on a champagne ground. Across the obi's full length, a procession is rendered scene by scene: figures crossing bridges, palanquins under shop awnings, market stalls rendered in colour against the gold field, the entire visual logic of an Edo emakimono (絵巻物) — the picture-scroll narrative tradition — sustained across a single woven textile. To weave a procession of this scale on a single obi is a commission rather than a production. The piece exists once.

At the atelier we cut a length from the original Fukuro-obi to wall tapestry format, lined the back with undyed support cloth to carry the considerable weight of the metallic thread structure, and mounted the textile between handmade hardwood bars at the top and bottom, finished with a leather hanging cord. The bars are part of the work, not a separate purchase. The visible silk is the obi as it was woven; nothing on the surface has been altered.

The Kin'un Emaki is the piece for the wall that carries the room. The principal hall of a private residence, the central wall of a hospitality space — restaurant, hotel lobby, the entrance of a gallery — the room that is meant to be remembered. The collector who acquires the Kin'un Emaki is not decorating a room. They are completing one.

Renaras: existing Japanese ceremonial silk, preserved at gallery scale and brought into rooms where it can be seen.

Each tapestry arrives with its own passport from the atelier — a handmade record of the obi's first life, the composition that was cut from it, the lining and mounting it received, signed and dated in Amsterdam.

Material: Japanese ceremonial silk, Fukuro-obi (袋帯) in Nishijin Kinran (西陣金襴) brocade
Dimensions: Approx. 100 × 35 cm displayed
Construction: Cut and redesigned from a Japanese ceremonial silk obi, lined to support the silk threads, mounted on handmade hardwood bars and finished with a leather hanging cord. Bars and cord supplied. No metal touches the visible silk.
Care: Dust with a soft brush. Avoid direct sunlight.
Origin: Japanese ceremonial silk, redesigned and finished at the Renaras atelier, Netherlands.

Each tapestry arrives complete with its mounting hardware. For private viewings and hospitality enquiries, contact the atelier.

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