Visions of Kimono

The word, kimono, means simply ‘the thing worn.’ As a garment it is incredibly simple in design being straight-seamed with wide sleeves. The garment is crossed over at the front (left over right) and fastened with a belt called an obi. Kimono are not tailored to each user, as in Western fashions. If the garment is too long, the excess fabric can be drawn up under the obi and the girth of the wearer is accommodated by the wrap style of the garment which also allows a freedom of movement for a culture that performs many tasks seated on the floor. 

The futokuro is the secret pocket that forms in the folds of the worn kimono. As the kimono is wrapped, left over right and tied with a belt, a pocket is created in between the inner and outer layers of the robe. It is positioned over the heart of the wearer and as such a series of idiomatic expressions associated with feelings and emotional impulses are associated with the futokoro such as: futokoro ga fukai. This expression describes someone as having a ‘deep futokoro,’ meaning they have a big heart and generous nature. 

Today the Japanese Kimono is only worn on special occasions but until the Meji period of Westernization, it was the common garment for both men and women in Japan. Rather than the cut, it is the pattern on the garment that denotes the wearer’s social status. While the collar of the kimono may be drawn back to reveal the sensual nape of a woman’s neck, the fashionable wearing of the kimono was defined by the colour and symbolic motifs on the fabric itself. Motifs and colours indicate the attributes and virtues of the wearer or relate to the season or fortunes of the specific occasion the kimono is being worn to. 

The cosmological meaning of colours was often derived from the plant that produced the pigment. For example, purple is a metaphor for undying love and the plant used to create purple dye, gromwell (murasaki), has very long roots. See this Kimono article hosted by the V&A museum for more information about the metaphorical meanings of colour and symbols on kimono.

I recommend this Huffington Post review of a Thames and Hudson compendium titled Kimono that highlights some history and fun facts about the garment such as, for instance, the fact that red kimono were forbidden during the Edo Period.

Image Credits: Outer-kimono for a young woman. Probably Kyoto, 1800-1830 and Kosode with gabions and cherry trees, silk crepe, resist dye and embroidery, 1700 – 1750 (Images courtesy of the joshibi art museum). Parading courtesan, woodblock print, Katsukawa Shunsen, 1804-18, Edo (Tokyo) © Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Kimono fashionability was defined by the motifs and colours of its fabrics. Choosing and designing kimono was thus a very visual project and the full colour printing method of Mokuhanga was put to good use to describe designs to creators and wearers alike. 

A collection of Mokuhanga pattern books gives visual insight into the changing social patterns of Japan. One such collection owned by Lisa Pevtzow was shown at the Chicago Botanical Gardens in 2014 in an exhibition titled Moku Hanga: The Art of Japanese Woodblock Printing . Spanning the late 18th to early 20th century, the books detail emerging trends in Art Nouveau and Arabesque designs as Japan moved from cultural isolation during the Edo period to more open trade with the West during the Meji Period. 

Another collection of books held at the Smithsonian and Metropolitan Museum of Art date from 1902 when Kimono production was a booming industry. This boom in a culturally traditional object emerged as a result of the Westernization of clothing during the Meji period when wearing kimono was heralded as a symbol of cultural heritage.  Modern innovations in design and dyeing techniques due to international trade maintained the validity of this cultural symbol, with the fascinating fact that global exchange succeeded in strengthening the industry at the time. 

The incredible artistry of the kimono pattern books is due to a brotherly rivalry between two publishing houses: the Unkindō and Unsōdō companies both run by relatives of the Honda family. When the companies later merged in 1906 under the name of Unsōdō, they continued to produce pattern books as selfconscious works of art. The catalogues make extensive use of negative space, fractal geometric interpretations of natural forms and abstract composition in much the same way as Ukiyo-e images produced at the same time. 

Visit this article by The Public Domain Review for more information on these books. You can access one of Ueno Seiko’s pattern books held by the Metropolitan Museum here

and the British Library also boasts an impressive collection here. The Western Washington University also has a good collection here. Visit their Tumblr site for images. 

Image Credit: Unshodo pattern book pages digitised by The Smithsonian Museum.

Cover image credit: Multiple plate woodblock printed kimono design catalogue from Kosai, edited by Takeda, Narajiro (Daimaru Gofukuten). Kyoto: Daimaru Gofukuten, 1911.