Japan’s Oldest Embroidery Artifact
共有
Japan’s Oldest Embroidery Work (National Treasure)
The oldest surviving embroidery work in Japan is the Tenjukoku Mandara Shucho (early 7th century, around 622, about the 30th year of Empress Suiko’s reign), preserved at Chuguji Temple in Nara.
Chuguji
1-1-2 Horyuji-kita, Ikaruga-cho, Ikoma-gun, Nara 636-0111
0745-75-2106
In Taisho 10 (1921) it was designated an “Old National Treasure (Important Cultural Property)” under the then Law for the Preservation of Ancient Shrines and Temples, and later, in Showa 27 (1952), it was designated a “National Treasure” under the present Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties.
Its official designation name as a cultural property is “Tenjukoku Mandara Shucho Zanketsu (surviving fragments of the Tenjukoku Mandara embroidered hanging).” “Zanketsu” means “what remains after parts have been lost and scattered.” The original embroidery (the main hanging) made in the Asuka period some 1,400 years ago has mostly deteriorated and fallen apart over its long history. The embroidery that survives today is a puzzle-like assembly on a single cloth of scant original fragments (Asuka period) and replica fragments (Kamakura period) remade by nuns of that later age who regretted the loss and imitated the remaining design.
The Tenjukoku Mandara Shucho is a magnificent masterpiece of the Asuka period and Japan’s oldest surviving embroidery, but looking worldwide, embroidery from several thousand years ago (BCE) has been found in places such as Egypt and China.
The World’s Oldest Embroidery
1. Embroidery from Tutankhamun’s Tomb (Egypt: around the 14th century BCE)
One of the world’s most famous and oldest embroidery artifacts is the tunic (garment) and sash excavated from the tomb of the ancient Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun.
- Date: 1300s BCE (over about 3,300 years ago)
- Features: On hemp or linen fabric, falcons, royal symbols, geometric patterns, and more are embroidered in advanced chain stitch and running stitch.
2. Silk Embroidery of China’s Warring States to Han Periods (China: about 4th century BCE–1st century CE)
China’s history of silk and embroidery is extremely old, and many embroideries far older than the Tenjukoku Mandara Shucho have been excavated in superb condition.
- Embroidery from the Mawangdui Han tombs: From a 2nd-century BCE (Western Han) tomb in Changsha, Hunan Province, large quantities of strikingly vivid silk embroidered garments and cloth were found (techniques called xinqi xiu and changshou xiu).
- Embroidery from Jiangling Mashan Tomb No. 1: From a 4th-century BCE (Warring States, Chu) tomb in Hubei Province, silk garments densely embroidered with dragons, phoenixes, tigers, and more in chain stitch (suoxiu) have been excavated.
3. Pazyryk Culture Saddle Covers (Siberia / Altai region: about 5th–3rd century BCE)
Artifacts of nomadic peoples excavated from frozen tombs (the Pazyryk burial mounds) in Russia’s Altai Mountains.
- Features: On felt and silk cloth miraculously preserved from decay by permafrost, complex motifs such as phoenixes and fighting animals are embroidered in very fine chain stitch.
4. Paracas Culture Textiles (Peru: about 3rd century BCE–early CE)
From cemeteries of the Paracas culture that flourished on the coast of Peru in South America, woven and embroidered textiles that wrapped mummies have been found.
- Features: Using alpaca and other wool or cotton, shamans, mythical creatures, spirits, and more are embroidered in colorful techniques ancestral to modern cross-stitch.
List of Historical Embroidery Works (the oldest embroidery artifacts)
| Artifact / culture | Location | Date |
| Tutankhamun’s garments | Egypt | 14th century BCE |
| Jiangling Mashan silk embroidery | China (Warring States) | 4th century BCE |
| Pazyryk culture embroidery | Siberia | 5th–3rd century BCE |
| Mawangdui Han tomb embroidery | China (Western Han) | 2nd century BCE |
| Tenjukoku Mandara Shucho | Japan (Asuka period) | Early 7th century (around 622) |
Hundreds to thousands of years before embroidery technique reached Japan, advanced embroidery cultures already existed worldwide using local materials (hemp, silk, wool, and more). Embroidery can be called a culture common to humanity.
Chain Stitch (sashiu / kusarinui)
Chain stitch (sashiu, kusarinui) is an embroidery technique that advances by sewing continuous chain-like loops of thread; it is generally known as chain stitch. It is one of the most basic embroidery techniques, used to define outlines clearly or to fill areas.
Japan’s oldest surviving embroidery work is the Tenjukoku Mandara Shucho, but the technique found on artifacts from Kurohimeyama Kofun—“chain stitch (sashiu, kusarinui)”—is also considered a basic technique in modern embroidery classification. Because chain stitch is among the most primitive methods humans devised when they thought “not only to join cloth, but to draw patterns,” its origins go back thousands of years.
The Oldest Archaeological Sources
The main sources currently cited in academic papers and reports as archaeological “proof of the world’s oldest chain stitch (actual objects)” are sites from ancient Egypt and ancient China.
-
Egypt: Finds from Tutankhamun’s tomb (14th century BCE)
- Sources: Howard Carter’s 1922 Tutankhamun tomb excavation reports, and later analyses of the garments (research by G.M. Vogelsang-Eastwood and others).
- Content: Extremely fine chain stitch has been scientifically confirmed on Tutankhamun’s tunic, sandal straps, and more.
-
China: Siberian Pazyryk mounds and Jiangling Mashan Tomb No. 1 (5th–4th century BCE)
- Sources: Jiangling Mashan Yihao Chu Mu (official excavation report published by Cultural Relics Press, China, 1985, among others)
- Content: Garments are densely embroidered with dragons and phoenixes; Chinese embroidery of this period is characteristically filled entirely with chain stitch (in Chinese, “suoxiu” or “bianziguzhen”). In China at that time, embroidery meant chain stitch.
The Oldest Documentary Sources
The oldest written sources for the word “chain stitch” or for embroidery as an act itself are classical Chinese texts.
-
Shangshu (Book of Documents), “Yiji” chapter
- Date: Compiled several centuries BCE (pre-Qin period)
- Content: It records twelve kinds of patterns (the Twelve Ordinances) that ancient sage-kings applied to clothing, and among them the character “xiu” (embroidery) appears. Because surviving Chinese embroidery of that era was all chain stitch, “xiu” in the literature is considered to refer effectively to chain stitch.
-
Shuowen Jiezi (around 100 CE, Eastern Han)
- Content: The oldest Chinese character dictionary. It defines the character “xiu” as “to pierce with a needle using five colors” (making patterns by stitching with variously colored thread).
The Oldest Sources for “Chain Stitch” in Japan
Limited to Japan, the following two are the oldest sources.
-
Archaeology (traces of actual objects): Ironware excavated from Kurohimeyama Kofun in Osaka Prefecture (5th century) and similar sites
- Sources: Nunome Junro, Kinu no Kokogaku (Archaeology of Silk) (Yuzankaku Publishing), among others. Fibers adhering to iron rust were analyzed under a microscope, confirming Japan’s oldest chain-stitch technique.
- The fundamental definition of embroidery is “using needle and thread to sew patterns afterward onto already woven fabric (the base cloth).” Microscopic analysis of fibers adhering to ironware from Kurohimeyama Kofun and elsewhere clearly showed another thread passing through the surface of the base silk fabric in chain-stitch loops. This is not a woven pattern (a pattern built into the weave) but evidence of stitching afterward with needle and thread on the cloth (= embroidery), so it belongs to embroidery classification.
-
Literature (written record): Records of Wei on the Wa People in the Records of the Three Kingdoms (3rd century)
- Content: Research suggests that the “wen” (pattern) of the “ao da ju wen jin” presented by Himiko was likely needlework (embroidery) in chain stitch, given Chinese fashion of the time. The reason is that the name includes the character “jin” (brocade / nishiki).
- Woven (nishiki) theory: The character “jin” originally refers to patterned woven cloth (like Jacquard weaving) made by intricately interlacing differently colored threads. So the literal reading is “a woven cloth with large curved patterns, mainly in blue.”
- Embroidery (needlework) theory: On the other hand, the character “wen” can mean “a pattern stitched with a needle.” Also, in China of that time (Han to Three Kingdoms), “a technique of further sewing fine patterns in chain stitch onto woven (jin) cloth” was fashionable as the highest luxury. Recent textile-archaeological research therefore holds that this “wen” likely refers to embroidered detail in chain stitch.
Whether viewed worldwide or within Japan, the beginning of embroidery history starts with chain stitch.
An Ancient Sense of Fashion
Mapped onto modern clothing and craft categories, it can be organized as follows.
- Finds from Kurohimeyama Kofun: Classified as hand embroidery. In fundamental structure it is exactly the same as modern embroidery.
- Himiko’s ao da ju wen jin: If researchers’ speculation is correct, it is a composite of woven cloth (base) + embroidery (decoration). It corresponds to the technique still common on modern luxury garments (kimono and dresses) of adding hand embroidery on woven cloth for dimension and splendor.
In other words, both are embroidery (or work that includes embroidery technique) loved across time, and embroidery can be said to have been loved by humanity everywhere on Earth, beyond language and environment.
COSMO® embroidery thread began in 1924, three years after the Tenjukoku Mandara Shucho was designated a National Treasure, and is a global embroidery brand marking its 102nd year this year. Himiko’s nishiki is also carried on in COSMO’s nishikiito®.