Image is courtesy of Tango Hashimototo Kimono.
Materials: Silver, Gold, Coral, Mother of Pearl, Ruby, and Jade
Motifs: Peaches
Owned By: Horiyae (堀八重) in Miyagawa Cho
This piece features a very simple yet cute motif: peaches! In traditional folklore there are stories of golden peaches that grant immortality, so it’s possible that these peaches allude to that. In addition, peaches are symbols of cuteness in the karyukai, so geimei containing peach (Momo - 桃) are often given to girls with plump, round faces like the titular fruit.
When it comes to materials we have a wonderful combination of mother of pearl and coral making up the two peaches. The largest is from a single piece of mother of pearl that’s extremely smooth and reflective while the second is carved from coral and features a cut away section with engraved chrysanthemums. This looks as though a piece has been taken out and that the peach contains something ethereal and otherworldly. Leaves and a flower of the plant form a border around the fruits that are made from gold plated silver; you can tell that it’s gold plated because it’s rubbed off in a few places. On the very top layers we see two pieces of bright green jade and a lovely ruby to make everything very shiny and bright!
Here you can see it being worn by maiko Fukutomo (ふく朋):