Silkworms were brought from China to Japan in the fourth century, and it was then that the Japanese began using silk to create fabric for clothing and decorative work. Some of Japan’s earliest silk textiles contain Chinese designs, but when the craft was taken up in the capitals of Kyoto and Nara—where the imperial family, nobility, and Buddhist clergy began to commission garments—the Japanese developed their own motifs. During the Edo period, 1603 to 1868, large quantities of silk were produced in the city called Edo, today known as Tokyo. Brocading, embroidery, and hand painting on silk were techniques perfected over centuries. Precision and imagination reigned. In St. Louis, “Shimmering Silks” focuses on masterworks from the 18th and 19th centuries. —Elena Clavarino