‘Tigers’ uchishiki drawing, Japan, Meiji (circa 1880), 69x36cm. An ‘uchishiki’ was a triangular cloth used to cover the front and sides of altars in Buddhist temples. Such cloths were presented to the temple by devotees and, whilst most were obtained - in the very spirit of Buddhism - by recycling discarded fabrics, others were custom-made on purpose and were displaying heavily embroidered auspicious designs. To properly embroider, a ‘guide’ or sample-drawing was needed. What we are offering here are such tools: on meticulously joined hand-made Japanese paper, auspicious motifs such a dragons, lion-dogs, turtles, etc were skilfully drawn with China ink. Usually of high quality drawing, and ‘signed’ by the artist with his own red stamp, these are objects worth collecting on their own, and a lucky find from the depot of a Kyoto-based studio of uchishiki-makers, whose archives tell us these little jewels can be assigned to the second half of the 19th century. The present lot shows two facing tigers within a bamboo forest rendered in a folkish way. Split, pin holes where the paper was hanging in front of embroiderer and some foxing on paper.