Kimono

The kimono revival in contemporary Japanese society seems to be pertinent and of high actuality given the multiple articles on the topic in the press and even books; however, it is far from being the first one. Therefore, the study starts with the reconstruction and comparison of previous revivals in Japanese history since the beginning of the Meiji period (1868–2010). In addressing political, social and economic aspects as well the author highlights the way in which nationalist tendencies and international conflicts equally provided impulses for the multifaceted phenomenon of kimono revivals at different moments in history. In the core of the study, based on ethnographic fashion research, Oly Mayela Firsching-Tovar sets out for the first time to analyze the multifaceted aspects of the contemporary kimono revival. Thus, in elucidating the connection between the beginning of the most recent trend and recycled kimono, she shows how in this revival kimono has become part of “casual wear,” as a commodity ready to be consumed in multiple ways. But the commoditization of the kimono was not itself enough to bring about the third kimono revival: this also required the commoditization of history by turning it into nostalgia—especially in the context of tourism in Japan, where historic sites and key events were re-created as stages for the performing of the dressed body in kimono, targeting female and male consumers alike.

Kimono are not considered suitable for contemporary life in Japan—it is difficult to even ride a bicycle while wearing a kimono. Because of this there is a pervading view that the Japanese traditional textile industry is in decline. However, Japanese designers and consumers are redefining Japanese clothing while retaining its ‘traditional’ image. This project investigates how the reinvention of Japanese clothing embodies the process by which tradition and modernity interact with each other and helps us understand how these new designs represent a vehicle for designers’ and consumers’ expressions of Japanese culture.

This paper examines the Japanese crown prince and emperor Hirohito during the 1920s to think more critically about how fashion historians can analyze “western” dress in non-western contexts. In particular, this essay looks at Hirohito’s embrace of new forms of middle-class menswear —particularly sportswear and the lounge suit — to signal fundamental shifts in the relationship between monarch and subject. These innovations rested upon far more than simply imitating western centers of men’s fashion. Instead, this paper argues that to understand the meaning of “western” clothing styles in non-western contexts, fashion studies needs a more sophisticated paradigm than the term “western clothes.” While some garments carried strong resonances of their European antecedents, Japanese men like Hirohito adopted them primarily for what they could do in Japan, while also understanding their potential for integrating Japan into the broader world.

Kimono are not considered suitable for contemporary life in Japan—it is difficult to even ride a bicycle while wearing a kimono. Because of this there is a pervading view that the Japanese traditional textile industry is in decline. However, Japanese designers and consumers are redefining Japanese clothing while retaining its "traditional" image. This project investigates how the reinvention of Japanese clothing embodies the process by which tradition and modernity interact with each other and helps us understand how these new designs represent a vehicle for designers’ and consumers’ expressions of Japanese culture.

In June 2015, a small strange protest erupted in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, around a sumptuous red kimono, provided to visitors to try on and emulate the 1876 painting La Japonaise, by Claude Monet. Protesters named themselves Decolonize Our Museums and took to the gallery and social media with strident messages condemning the Kimono Wednesdays try-on activity as racist, orientalist appropriation; soon after, counterprotesters faced off, defending the programme for sharing Japanese culture with the community. In this article, I consider the kimono protests as part of a history of kimono, internationally created yet indelibly marked as Japanese. In this context, the kimono protests provide an occasion to consider the ramifications of contemporary debates about cultural appropriation and appreciation. Through a performance-theory inflected analysis I propose a theatrical ethic of ‘inappropriation’ as a means of moving discourse and public performances of culture beyond the stulti...

En esta investigación se explora el kimono, desde la perspectiva de la identidad. La construcción de iconos está muy ligada con la construcción de estereotipos, porque ambos simplifican nuestro modo de ver y estar en el mundo. El kimono es una indumentaria característica de Japón, que sirvió y sigue siendo un reclamo publicitario para aproximarnos a su país y su cultura. Desde que Japón abriera sus fronteras a mediados del siglo XIX, el occidental ha deseado vestir esta prenda, y visitar su lugar de origen.
Un artículo de Pilar Cabañas Moreno (Universidad Complutense de Madrid)

Este texto é uma proposta de reflexão em três partes sobre o tema “roupa” em O Livro de Travesseiro, de Sei Shônagon (Japão, séculos X–XI), discutindo a importância dos fazeres relacionados ao têxtil na sociedade aristocrática japonesa da Antiguidade; as suas ressonâncias no contexto da moda no século XX; e a maneira como a metáfora escritura-corpo-vestimenta se atualiza e amplifica na adaptação do livro para o cinema. No livro, texto, têxtil e memória se confundem, formando uma metáfora complexa que é também um comentário sobre a condição feminina na Corte Imperial de Heian. A adaptação da obra para o cinema (O Livro de Cabeceira, de Peter Greenaway, 1996) conta com a colaboração do designer desconstrutivista Martin Margiela, e acrescenta novas camadas interpretativas a esse aglomerado de imagens relacionadas aos atos de escrever, tecer, ler, traduzir, adaptar e desconstruir. O caráter fragmentário da obra literária pode ainda ser lido como em diálogo com o jornalismo de moda do século XX. O ideal estético do okashi, da literatura clássica japonesa, encontra eco no conceito de pizzazz, de Diana Vreeland, assim como no esteticismo da poética modernista. A roupa como metáfora do texto e a ideia de que roupa é texto estão presentes nesses três momentos interpretativos. Palavras-chave: quimono, Sei Shônagon, Peter Greenaway, desconstrutivismo, okashi, pizzazz.

This text is a three-part reflection upon the theme of “clothing” as it is found in a literary work of Ancient Japan — on the importance of garment-making skills as a device for the production of difference in the context of the Imperial Court; on how the theme from the book resonates in the context of 20th century fashion; and on how it is brought up to date and amplified, working as a metaphor for writing, in the film adaptation of the ancient text. In The Pillow Book of Sei Shônagon (Japan, 10th–11th centuries), text, textile and memory merge into an extended, web-like metaphor that is also a commentary on the status of women in Imperial Heian. The adaptation of the written work for the cinema (The Pillow Book, by Peter Greenaway, 1996) features clothes by deconstructivist Martin Margiela, adding new interpretative layers to this cluster of images, relating them to the acts of writing, weaving, reading, translating, adapting and deconstructing. The fragmentary character of Sei Shônagon’s work also resonates with fashion journalism of the 20th century. The aesthetic ideal of okashi, a concept from classical Japanese literature, resonates with 20th century conceptions of fashion, such as Diana Vreeland’s pizzazz, and with the aesthetics of modernist poetry. Clothing as a metaphor for text and the idea of clothing as text are present in those three interpretative moments.

Descrição: título: MAIS OUTRA isbn: 9788581086316 idioma: Português encadernação: Brochura formato: 14 x 21 páginas: 128 ano de edição: 2014 edição: 1ª autor: Lica Cecato

A energia do oriente faz bem à Lica, sendo que é multi-lateral  e navega no mundo todo como  compositora, cantora, música, escritora e artista plástica. Na verdade, a ideia de escrever o livro Mais Outra nasceu da produtora artística Amalia Tarallo, manager da artista de 2014 a 2018. Depois de um ano trabalhando juntas, ao ver a quantidade de escritos e estudos que Lica fizera, desde 1982, com a lingua e a cultura japonesa, se animou e decidiu estimulá-la a abrir seu baú, sua bagagem, ao mundo.

Mais Outra se divide em Pessoas, Capítulos, Fotos, Bob Wilson interpretando Beckett e Ono no Komachi. A seleção de fotos, que tenta um paralelo entre o Brasil e o Japão, foi escolhida pela artista plástica Cecília de Medeiros, e a intenção é mostrar o que não se consegue dizer com palavras, através de imagens. Já a tradução, ou melhor, como dizia o nosso saudoso poeta Haroldo de Campos, transcriação, dos 7 poemas de Ono no Komachi, poetisa japonesa do século IX, foram feitas em conjunto com o artista multimídia e poeta visual André Vallias.

Um paralelo entre o teatro Kabuki e o monologo de Beckett, Krapp’s last tape, interpretado e encenado por Bob Wilson, mostra uma ponte relativamente inédita, ousada, entre ocidente e oriente. Lica não define a si mesma nem como escritora nem como fotógrafa, mas usa todos os meios possíveis, sem limites nem fronteiras, para transmitir sua arte.

A capa de Mais Outra  foi desenhada por Flávio Morais, artista plástico e ilustrador, professor de artes visuais,  que mora em Barcelona e que recebeu o Premio Graffica 2014, por sua brilhante trajetória artística. Os livros e a gravação de um CD com músicas japonesas, que está sendo elaborado, dão o início aos projetos de comemoração dos 120 anos de relacionamento diplomático entre Brasil e Japão em 2015. O projeto musical de  Lica  foi selecionado, entre outros,  pelo Embaixador do Brasil no Japão,  André Corrêa do Lago, para apresentações no Japão e Brasil em 2015.

Desde la cuarta edición del DRAE, de 1803, se viene conservando en lengua española el vocablo “quimón”, para el que la Academia propuso un étimo japonés; si bien la RAE ha variado su descriptor etimológico en la última edición del Diccionario de la lengua española, donde se indica que la lengua portuguesa ha actuado como intermediaria entre el japonés y el español. Por otro lado, en español actual contamos con el japonesismo “quimono”, introducido recientemente en las lenguas occidentales. Los objetivos principales de este artículo han sido examinar al detalle los descriptores etimológicos ofrecidos por la RAE y estudiar el comportamiento histórico de dichas voces desde sus primeros registros. Asimismo, hemos analizado una variante americana, “quimona”, que parece ser una especialización morfológica con un significado derivado de la primera acepción de “quimono”.

This article examines British responses to changes in Japanese dress during the Victorian period. The disapproval of the Japanese adoption of European clothing is shown to be linked to British anxieties regarding their political relationship and cultural engagement with Japan. The ways in which the kimono served as a touchstone for the British understanding of the country, representing an unchanging and romanticised view of the cultural identity of its Japanese wearer, is also explored. However, the kimono did not only signal 'Japaneseness', but was assimilated in British fashion as well. This article further explores how the kimono was related to issues of late nineteenth-century dress reform in Britain as well as to British unease about the cultural changes that they themselves had experienced in the wake of industrialisation.

When Kim Kardashian launched her new underwear brand in 2019 there was a media storm about the name – Kimono. The public outrage centred on the concept of the cultural appropriation of a Japanese national symbol. Opposition to the trademark name was so strong that it eventuated in the mayor of Kyoto, Daisaku Kadokawa, writing a letter asking her to reconsider. Kardashian eventually abandoned the plan and relaunched her brand later that year under a different trademark. ‘Kimono’, meaning ‘thing to wear’, has come to represent the outer robe worn for formal occasions in Japan. Not only is a kimono not underwear, it is an outer garment that has come to stand for formality and high culture. It follows strict rules of etiquette. In contrast to underwear, which is hidden and usually unseen, a kimono is explicitly worn to be seen. In addition, in terms of the female shape, although both the kimono and shapewear are worn to mould the body, the shapes and values they promote are very different. This presentation examines the meanings behind the term kimono and its relationship to Japanese people to explain the significance of Kardashian’s attempted branding. In exploring the kimono and its role as a symbol of culture and nationalism for Japan, and comparing it to Kardashian’s underwear brand, it is easy to denounce her idea as a poor marketing ploy. However, the real issue is that by trademarking a word, one individual – who in this case is often perceived as illegitimate and associated with lowbrow culture yet wields worldwide influence – could potentially alter or erase thousands of years of cultural heritage and tradition.
(56 minute mark on video)

This is P.M. Taylor's preface to the exhibition catalog "Kubota Itchiku sakuhinshū" (author: Kubota, Itchiku, 1917-2003; published: Tōkyō: Itchiku Tsujigahana, 1996.) [English translation of title: “Itchiku Kubota: an anthology” / Catalog of Japanese exhibition of works by artist Kubota Itchiku.] 

Mr. Kubota's tsujigahana pattern-dyed textiles are, in fact, both aesthetically stunning and technically impressive. When considered in historical context, they are also satisfying and thought-provoking in other ways. They represent, for example, a success story in the preservation and re-vitalization of tradition. In this story, a museum played an important part. As Mr. Kubota recounts in this book, at the age of twenty he visited the Tokyo National Museum and happend upon an example of the long-abandoned tsujigahana technigue of Japanese textile patterning that had been in vogue in the 15th and 16th centuries. The unique aesthetic effect of this lost technique so fascinated Itchiku Kubota that he later devoted himself to it. Mr. Kubota has named his  modified or "contemporized" technique ltchiku Tsujigahana, using his own nom de plume "Itchiku". Mr. Kubota has updated this tradition by the conscientious selection of new elements such as chemical dyes (with their vastly expanded range of colors) strictly within the philosophical
and artistic framework of the original technique. This adds new expressiveness to the classical aesthetic effect.

European visitors to Japan first encountered kimono in the late 16th century. Despite the closing of Japanese ports to the outside world in the mid-17th century, kimono began to spread throughout Europe as its beauty attracted many upper-class people. This history paved the way for kimono's enormous popularity among the Westerners who started visiting Japan after the opening of the country in the mid-19th century. Soon afterward, so-called "Japonism" emerged in Europe, with Paris as the epicenter, and kimono further received attention as it was featured in a variety of cultural items, including ukiyo-e prints. Ironically, among the modern Japanese, who regarded the West as the only model to follow for national development, kimono was deemed outdated to the point of being a disgrace among the upper classes, and it was quickly replaced by Western clothes. It was only after Japan became an industrial, and eventually military, power, that kimono began to be reevaluated as Japan's admired tradition. By placing kimono in these historical contexts, this paper shows how kimono, especially for unmarried women, came to be represented as Japan's national dress. It also discusses the increasing popularity of kimono among young foreign tourists today in terms of global consumption of national heritage. (Photo credits: All photos reproduced in this paper are by the author, except otherwise stated).

The paper discusses the significance of the kimono, the tanka poetry, and traditional Japanese dance to the life and philosophy of sociologist Tsurumi Kazuko (1918-2006), with a special focus on her Australian tour in 1937 with her politician father Tsurumi Yusuke. In each of the capital cities where the father gave public lectures and seminars, the young Kazuko contributed to the cultural exchange through her traditional dance performance in kimono and interviews. She also kept poetic record of the tour. This working paper, written in Japanese, is included in a Research Report of a Kakenhi Project (17H02305) led by Professor Yoshiko Inui (2017-2019).

Fashion in the 21st century is typically fast fashion, characterised by mass production, high turnover, and goods designed for a short lifespan. The kimono appears to be the antithesis of fast fashion in terms of production and consumption. A kimono takes time to create and usually has a long lifespan. In addition, for the consumer, it takes time to put on and restricts bodily actions, enforcing slower movements. However, in the current global fashion market there has been a growing trend towards ‘slow fashion’ in which clothing involves longer production times, use of local materials, and a focus on quality and sustainability. Elements within the Japanese fashion industry demonstrate this trend but the reality is more complex than simply complying to a set of ‘slow fashion’ criteria. An examination of the Kyoto textile industry demonstrates a simultaneous speeding up and slowing down of various aspects of Japanese clothing. This in turn is changing the way producers and consumers view fashion. Just as ‘slow food’ provides a new sensory focus for the experience of food, fashion includes multiple sensorial qualities, and if these qualities become the focus of design and production, clothing has the capacity to provide a multisensory experience for the wearer that takes it beyond the visual. An experience of clothing that includes the ‘senses of proximity’—smell, touch and taste—allows consumers to form memories, emotional attachments and stories regarding their attire that in turn has the potential to make garments more valued and appreciated.

Fashion in the 21st century is typically fast fashion, characterised by mass production, high turnover, and goods designed for a short lifespan. The kimono appears to be the antithesis of fast fashion in terms of production and consumption. A kimono takes time to create and usually has a long lifespan. However, in the current global fashion market there has been a growing trend towards slow fashion, which involves longer production times, use of local materials, and a focus on quality and sustainability. Elements within the Japanese fashion industry exhibit this trend but the reality is more complex than simply complying with a set of slow fashion criteria. An examination of the Kyoto kimono making industry demonstrates a simultaneous speeding up and slowing down of various aspects of Japanese clothing. Rigorous scrutiny reveals the difficulty of categorizing production techniques as either fast or slow fashion. In addition, alternative ways of consuming kimono, that align with slow fashion characteristics, demonstrate that they can change the way consumers view purchases.

This short essay will explore why Philip Wilson Steer's 'The Kimono' (1896) is important for understanding Japonism, and how artists like Steer formed a unique channel of communication between Japan and Europe, transmitting aesthetic ideals, arousing fascination – and spreading misinterpretation.

This article investigates a fashion trend during the first half of the 2010’s for a garment that looked little like the indigenous kimono, was often designed and manufactured in centers other than Japan and was largely intended for consumption outside of Japan, but none-the-less was marketed as kimono. Rather than reflecting on the ways in which this trend could be viewed as another example of cultural appropriation in the fashion industry or demonstrative of the fashion industry’s attempt to maximize profit by flooding the market with endless variations of these garments that resonate rather tired Orientalized stereotypes, this article examines how the ways in which the kimono has been transformed as it moves through time and across borders resonate with this trend and seeks to better understand the political, social, cultural and economic drivers behind such transformations. It also brings to light new developments in this garment’s cultural meanings.

This chapter focuses on the ways in which technological change, in particular digitisation, has altered the sonic environment of the Kyoto kimono-making industry. It examines two main kimono-making techniques, Nishijin orimono (weaving) and kyo-yūzen (paste-resist dyeing) to describe the changes in this soundscape. In contemporary Kyoto, it is possible to draw comparisons between traditional and digitised soundscapes of weaving and paste-resist dyeing techniques because the traditional and technologically advanced methods operate side-by-side. These examples show that the sonic environment is a significant factor in constructions of identity and community.

A growing number of consumers want more information about the environmental and human costs involved in the production of their clothing. The human costs associated with garment manufacturing include health issues of textile workers and one aspect that has been a focus for researchers is hearing loss. This presentation will focus on the ways in which technological change, in particular digitisation, is altering the sonic environment of the Kyoto kimono-making industry. I will examine two main kimono-making techniques, Nishijin orimono (weaving) and kyo-yūzen (paste-resist dyeing) to describe the changes in the manufacturing soundscape. In Kyoto, the weaving industry generally is in decline and there is a significant impact on the soundscape as the looms, and thus the weaving district, gradually falls silent. Kyo-yūzen, however, is undergoing a revival and technological innovations are creating a new sensory environment that is acceptable to younger designers – a digital yūzen studio is very similar to a contemporary office environment, including sounds such as an inkjet printer. In contrast to kyo-yūzen, the sonic environment of Nishijin orimono is becoming less familiar and less acceptable to weavers. This is important because the textile production soundscape is a significant factor in the working conditions of employees.

How do contemporary kimono designers negotiate notions of authenticity and tradition? For those employing traditional production methods it is easier to sustain an image of authenticity but for those that use technologically advanced methods such as computer-aided design and digital printing this is more of a challenge. This paper argues that designers and artisans negotiate these issues three ways: by adhering to design conventions, through claims of artistic legacy, and through the framing of the concept of tradition in Japan.

Since the Meiji era, Japanese craftsmanship has been used as a means to legitimize nationhood and today craftsmanship forms a primary component of Japanese national heritage. Japanese crafts are characterized by traditional handmade products, small production runs, and (staged) visibility of artisans. Craft work such as textiles, pottery or wooden items are often presented as embodying ‘spiritual’ elements of the artisan, and are also portrayed as the antithesis to mass production. These elements, what Sugimoto has termed “handicraft ideology” (2015), are conveyed as part of the narrative of the "traditional artisan," in an emerging global craft community. The textile industry in Kyoto is a prime example whereby companies and artisans are using this handicraft ideology to participate in ‘transnational craftscapes’ (Kawlra 2015), to market their products and to perpetuate the narrative of the ‘traditional artisan’. Examining this handicraft ideology illuminates areas of knowledge production, transmission and practice of culture. Furthermore, it demonstrates the constructed nature of the frames of value and meaning embedded within the practices, and how these are used to achieve objectives such as identity, power, and authenticity in the field of heritage politics.

Place is one way of defining authenticity. From local to national, place has been an important element in legitimising the authenticity of goods. This is particularly true of Japan where there is big business in the local specialties sought after for omiyage (souvenirs) by domestic tourists. From a manufacturing perspective, both production techniques and the creation of specialty goods are also a source of local pride and identity. The production systems themselves, however, often extend beyond national borders, calling into question the traditional relationship between place and authenticity. This paper explores this blurring of boundaries using the example of the weaving industry in Nishijin, Kyoto. Kyoto has been a focus of textile production since the 8th century and is still seen as the 'authentic' source of textile production expertise and knowledge in Japan. The prefix 'Kyô' before the name of production techniques, such as Kyô-kanoko shibori (tie-dyed textiles) or Kyô-yûzen (paste-resist dyed textiles) refers to Kyoto, and reinforces this location's primacy in the artistic tradition. Kyoto's woven obi (kimono sashes) are branded with an even narrower local moniker. Nishijin, in northwest Kyoto, has been the weaving district since the end of the Onin Civil War in 1477 and still produces what are known as Nishijin obi. Each Nishijin obi comes with a mark of authenticity designated by the Nishijin Textile Industrial Association (Nishijin Ori Kôgyô Kumiai) identifying it with the district. Therefore place is integral to the identity of the woven obi. How then, do we reconcile the fact that 50% of Nishijin obi are not made in Kyoto city and a further 10% are not made in Japan at all? This paper describes the increasing trend of outsourcing in Kyoto textile production and how globalisation is challenging ideas of place and authenticity.

Kimono, in English, means “wearing thing.” But the garment everyone associates with Japan was not always called by that name. Its long history is one of the best examples of how clothing confers a sense of identity...

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In early 20th-century Japan, the son of lower-class goldfish sellers falls in love with the beautiful daughter of his rich patron. After he is sent away to study the science of goldfish breeding, with strict orders to return and make his patron's fortune, he vows to devote his life to producing one ideal, perfect goldfish specimen to reflect his loved-one's beauty. This poignant and deft tale is presented along with the story of a pauper from Kyoto who teaches himself to be an accomplished chef.

The kimono revival in contemporary Japanese society seems to be pertinent and of high actuality given the multiple articles on the topic in the press and even books; however, it is far from being the first one. Therefore, the study starts with the reconstruction and comparison of previous revivals in Japanese history since the beginning of the Meiji period (1868–2010). In addressing political, social and economic aspects as well the author highlights the way in which nationalist tendencies and international conflicts equally provided impulses for the multifaceted phenomenon of kimono revivals at different moments in history. In the core of the study, based on ethnographic fashion research, Oly Mayela Firsching-Tovar sets out for the first time to analyze the multifaceted aspects of the contemporary kimono revival. Thus, in elucidating the connection between the beginning of the most recent trend and recycled kimono, she shows how in this revival kimono has become part of "casua...

Turning Pages makes sense of Japanese "ladies' magazines" through a detailed analysis of several interwar magazines, including the literary journal Ladies' Review (Fujin koron), the popular domestic periodical Housewife's Friend (Shufu no tomo), and the politically radical magazine Women's Arts (Nyonin geijutsu). Through a close examination of their literature, articles, advertising, and art, the book explores the magazines as both windows onto and actors in this period of Japanese history. Women's magazines in modern Japanese literature were significant not only for the opportunities they afforded women writers but also for their often underestimated institutional and financial support of the literary community as a whole. This book will be of interest to students of Japanese literature, women's studies, and modern history.