Seen here beside a related display of traditional clothing and accessories, Yamamoto’s screen painting Whose clothes? is a witty and elegant vision of the layering of cultures in present-day Japan. Renowned for his idiosyncratic approach to nihonga or Japanese-style painting, Yamamoto uses techniques and motifs from the Edo period (1615–1868). Here they include the tarashikomi or ‘pooled ink’ technique and the decorative water-swirl and water wheel motifs on the garments. He also echoes traditional Tagasode or ‘Whose sleeves?’ screens,which featured women’s kimono (kosode) draped over lacquered clothing racks alongside other objects connected with beautiful women like purses or amulets. Such scenes evoked the presence of the owner through her possessions.