Patterns by Hishikawa [Hishikawa moyō]

Patterns by Hishikawa (Hishikawa moyō) is a textile-design pattern book by Hishikawa Moronobu, held at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Pattern books like this one—technically hinagatabon—were issued to publicize the latest robe designs available from leading kimono houses, and they functioned simultaneously as catalogue, fashion magazine, and visual reference for embroiderers and dyers. Moronobu's contribution to the genre was decisive. Rather than simply diagram garment fronts in flat outline, he presents each design as a complete, gracefully arranged kimono, complete with sleeves spread for display and pattern fields filled with finely drawn motifs: flowing water, plum blossoms, scattered fans, paulownia leaves, mist-bound pine groves, and abstract bands of horizontal stripe. The result reads halfway between a textile catalogue and a portfolio of pure design. By signing the book Hishikawa Moyō, the [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e) founder also made the unusual move of putting his own name on the merchandise—a kind of designer label decades before such branding became standard. Within the broader landscape of early Edo ukiyo-e, the volume is a key piece of evidence for how closely the new printed pictures were tied to the kimono and textile industries that powered urban consumption. The V&A's holding is particularly important because relatively few of these working pattern books survived heavy household use, and the example preserved there documents Hishikawa Moronobu's role in shaping the visual culture of seventeenth-century Japanese dress.