nobori bata cloth, Japan, Meiji (c.1880), cm 265x36. a textile banner used for celebrating Boys' Festival, a Japanese festivity occurring early May every year. This one has a typical 19th century narrow size, displaying a very stylized family crest in the upper part and a minimalist scenery of an iris plant and a little stream down to the bottom. Decorated in tsutsugaki technique on hand-spun and hand-woven cotton. Two tiny holes and a bit of age-evidence (e.g. ‘ foxing’) in the cloth. a gorgeous witness of Japanese traditions: smart, essential and very ‘Zen Garden’ in its look.