Wool and silk temple cloth, Japan, Meiji (circa 1880), cm 104x105. This is an ‘uchishiki’, a cloth used to decorate altars in Buddhist temples. The origin of the uchishiki can be traced back to the lifetime of Shakyamuni Buddha. During the Buddha's time a custom was established of spreading out fine pieces of cloth for the Buddha to sit on when preaching to his disciples and others assembled to hear him. The cloth would be spread out and the disciples would bow in reverence to the Buddha with their foreheads touching the cloth at his feet. It later came to decorate the altar tables of temples on special occasions of hearing the Buddha's teaching. The cloth we are offering here has a typical triangular shape. Unlike many others from same period, obtained by patching an antique fabrics, this was custom made by embroidering with silk and metal threads a plain wool cloth. This means it was a special and expensive offer from the devotee, as embroideries were done following a special drawing made by a skilled artisan for this occasion. Here we can see two facing ‘tennyo’ (lit. ‘maiden from heaven’) amid a profusion of clouds on a red wool cloth. Its large size may suggest it was used on a main altar. There are little condition issues, such as little stains and tiny holes on the cloth, and some loose stitching, but this cannot detract from the intrinsic beauty of this very Japanese object. a lovely thing.