This panel was originally part of a costume worn by an actor in a Nô performance. Nô is a traditional Japanese dance drama with a poetic text that is sung to the accompaniment of three drums and a flute. All the performers are male, and the actor in the leading role wears a mask. The costumes are heavy and stiff. Their emphatic designs suit the slow, deliberate movements of a Nô performance, which takes place on a virtually bare stage. This panel would have been part of a costume known as a‘karaori’; it would have been worn by an actor playing a female role. The pattern of chrysathemums, pine shoots, bellflowers and bushclover has been woven with long floating wefts that look almost like embroidery.