Piece

Art Historical Context

This delicate silk textile fragment, titled simply *Piece*, hails from Japan during the 18th–19th century, a time when Edo-period craftsmanship reached extraordinary heights in textile production. Woven with precision, this small 6½ x 7½-inch (16.51 x 19.05 cm) square showcases rabbits—a motif rich in Japanese folklore, often symbolizing good fortune, the moon, and playful vitality. As a woven textile in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Asian Department, it exemplifies the era's mastery of silk weaving, where intricate patterns were created directly in the loom using techniques like supplement...