Nô is the classical theatre of Japan which was codified in the 14th century by the father and son actors Kan'ami and Zeami under the patronage of the Shogun (supreme military leader) Ashikaga Yoshimitsu. Under Yoshimitsu the Zen principles of restraint, understatement, economy of movement and frugality of expression became incorporated into the performance. By the early seventeenth century Noh had become an even more austere and formalised drama reserved almost exclusively for the Tokugawa family, the ruling military elite. This type of robe is called karaori means 'Chinese Weave',although the term came to describe the style of robe itself as much as the technique. The karaori is the basic outer robe worn by a Nôh actor in female roles and the predominant red colour of the robe indicates the character of a young woman. The robe is decorated with roundels of chrysanthemums, peonies and irises in coloured silks on a gold thread lattice pattern over a woven red silk ground. It has three layers of simultaneously woven design: the ground, the background geometric pattern and the top pattern of glossy silk that looks almost like embroidery. Robe (karaori), polychrome figured silk, with decoration of flower roundels on a lattice ground, Japan, 1780-1820 Robe for the Nô theatre of polychrome figured silk. 2/1 warp-faced twill ground and two pattern wefts (white silk and gilt paper strip, the latter is bound in a 2/1 weft-faced twill by a proportion of threads taken from the ground warp). The flowers and leaves which are arranged in clusters against a fret-work ground, are brocaded in coloured silks which are unbound both on the face and the back of the textile. The robe is lined with pinky silk. The sleeves are wide and loose, and the body of the robe from chest level widens down to the hem from a series of gores on either side of the centre front.