A Random PSA on Dating Kimono
To the anonymous person who made this answer come to life: your question is literally one of the main reasons why I decided to write a book on kimono. English information is stupidly hard to come by and even I can’t count how many times I’ve had to sift through what felt like millions of books and websites to find anything close to what I was looking for. To everyone else, this is Day 6 of the 12 Days of Fun (’cause learning is fun). There are so many ways to date a kimono, from generalizations (ie: time periods) to the minute (ie: specific materials or techniques) that it could fill at least a chapter of a book (sorry, really lame reference in there). If you want even more in-depth information other than this then feel free to send me a message or ask more questions if I haven’t fully answered everything. First, I need to talk about the fundamental issue that all items, whether ancient or antique, have: the most expensive ones were always preserved more than the common ones. This continuously presents a bias when trying to find information on items because you’re only going to ever find information about what’s been preserved, and that information is always going to be about the exceptional pieces rather than the status quo. Information on all levels of kimono has been well documented since the 1950s as we still have many examples around that go from the cheapest to the most expensive (and technology has helped to retain that memory), but whenever we go father back we hit that wall of bias. One of the more unique issues as to why we don’t have as much information on kimono prior to 1950 as say, practically any other object, is that shit (I really can’t think of a better word here) has really screwed with Japan and its artifacts. Looking at every time Japan had a large earthquake is an instance of lost information. Mass destruction means that there will be losses, and if said losses occur in large and/or important cities (looking at you, Tokyo), then we lose not only the items themselves but the information that went along with them. Museums didn’t have spare copies of the information that they kept with their kimono, so if the museum burned down or was destroyed then we lost all known information along with the artifacts themselves. This has happened a lot (I hate that term but, again, it functions quite well in this situation). Besides cities being destroyed we also had the mass exodus of Japanese artifacts out of Japan courtesy of American GIs in the late 1940s, so what did avoid imminent destruction during the war is now likely sitting in someone’s attic. People sold off their most valuable family heirlooms just for food, and most of those heirlooms were at least 30-50 years old, yet the GIs themselves never really cared for the items as they should have been and many have also been destroyed due to neglect (I can’t even begin to tell you how many people I’ve seen sell kimono that some family member brought back from Japan and they either left it out on a wall or let an animal chew on it). So, whether it was bombs or Americans we’re still trying to find as many surviving examples as possible to help build the narrative of kimono and how they’ve evolved. It may come as a surprise to people, but some of the most valuable kimono that I own or have owned were almost all purchased from Americans (I can think of a single exception that came from England, but that owner purchased it from someone in America, so it doesn’t totally count). Now, back to the original question at hand: how do you date kimono? Honestly, the best way is to split information into time periods and then go into specifics from there as the specifics tend to be fashion trends. For any kimono you may end up seeing or interacting with there are 6 main time periods: 1) Edo (1603 - 1868) 2) Meiji (1868 - 1912) 3) Taisho (1912 - 1926) 4) Early Showa (1926 - 1945) 5) Late Showa (1946 - 1989) 6) Heisei (1989 - Present) You may look at the first one and be like, “that’s a really long time...” and it is, but the chances of you finding a kimono from this period is beyond stupidly rare. Information on this period is scarce and what does exist has the highest information bias (only the best survived), but that usually isn’t too much of an issue since what you’re looking at is likely of this quality too. Due to ease of understanding I’m actually going to talk about this period last. The most important parting line between periods is between Edo and Meiji. From the Meiji onward we not only have far more existing pieces, but we still have both written and pictorial accounts of what kimono were like that have (thankfully) survived. The basic characteristics of the Meiji kimono are: -Shusu Silk -Heavy Embroidery (Held Over From Edo), With Emphasis on Gold -Continuous Patterns Across the Entire Garment As a reminder, only the best pieces survived, so I can only talk about what we do know. The majority of kimono that survived from the Meiji were uchikake, specifically bridal ones. Looking at what was going on in the world during the Meiji Period mostly explains the fashion. Japan had finally opened its doors to the outside world and this brought in new technology while sending out Japanese made items brought a new appreciation (re: fascination) of Japanese goods in Europe. The technology, which was becoming mechanized, meant that it took less labor and less time to produce a high quality kimono goods. This is why shusu silk became so incredibly popular: it was thick, shiny, very luxurious, and was once reserved for only the elite of the elite. Now that incredibly rich merchant class who still owned the majority of wealth in the country were no longer bound by sumptuary laws they could commission kimono of the best quality for their daughters. It almost became an issue of peacocking with families trying to one up each other as to who could have the most expensive looking kimono when they married off their daughters. So, beyond shusu silk, what else could be applied to kimono to make it even more expensive? Gold. 24 carat gold sheets were imported (as Japan is not a gold producing country), cut into small strips, wound around paper wires, and embroidered onto kimono with very delicate saffron dyed threads. Embroidery itself already took a long time, but having to embroider on gold took even longer. In a way to differentiate from the Edo Period this is where we begin to see entire scenes covering a kimono from one panel to the next without a break. There were always some small bits of overlap in the Edo Period (usually to tie the panels together), but now the kimono was viewed as one large work of art (this is also partially a European influence). The next period is the Taisho Period, which we have many more surviving pieces from that aren’t restricted to uchikake like the Meiji was. This is the kimono renaissance with the largest amount of kimono ever being produced in Japan’s 2,000+ years of history. Oddly enough, the biggest stylistic changes were all due to Western influence, but their characteristics are: -Ryōzuma -Patterns on Shoulders -Painterly Drawings Instead of Embroidery -Western Motifs The biggest change was the move from heavy (and gaudy) embroidery to yuzen (paste resist dye) as better colors and effects could now be achieved with imported dyes and materials. Ryōzuma (両褄) literally means “Mirror Pattern” and this is one of the biggest indicators of the age. Since kimono were mostly viewed while seated the majority of patterns were placed on the two outer panels (ie: the ones that would be seen) and the others were kept blank and/or had some sparse details to tie them together. The scenes on the panels would be almost identical (hence “mirrored”) with some small changes made to each so that they weren’t completely identical. This was mostly seen on kimono for married women, but it existed on furisode as well. Instead of the back (middle) panels being completely blank they’d be tied together with what looked like a sweeping motion. The pattern on the outer patterns would often lead onto the bottoms of the sleeves as well. Since Japan was becoming Westernized they moved from traditionally being seated on the floor to sitting in Western style chairs. Kimono were not meant to be worn while seated on a Western chair, so kimono makers had to change the placement of motifs so that they could be seen while seated on a chair. This is where we start to see patterns being added on the shoulders (seriously). Since Japan was closed until recently the motifs found on kimono were also found in the country, but now foreign fashion became all the rage and kimono adapted to this with a style known as “Taisho Roman” (”Roman” referring to Europe). This is where we start seeing interesting motifs such as roses or parrots being added to almost everything (so, so many roses), and the sparse ryōzuma designs being replaced by motifs that covered as much of the garment as formality allowed. The art styles also started to take after Western influences with bold outlines and flat colors like the incredibly popular Art Nouveau and Art Deco posters. Since new materials meant that better dyes in more colors could be produced and people were ordering so many kimono black cemented its place as the most formal color and became reserved mostly for wedding wear. The gorgeous black wedding furisode from this period became covered in motifs and the ability to transform a bride’s furisode to a tomesode basically stopped happening (people just ordered a tomesode instead of altering their furisode). Since the Showa Period was so long and had monumental changes occur within the country it’s split between the Early (1926-1945) and the Late (1946-1989). Characteristics of the Early Showa are: -Continued Western Influence -Bold, Flat Colors -Gold (Again) Why have a life-like flower when you could have a flower colored in a single color with white or black outlines added!? This Western influence continued right up until the end of World War II, but now gold was back! Gold lamé became popular on almost everything and painted designs were accented by a lamé overlay and/or an embroidered gold outline. Sadly this didn’t last and the giant prosperity bubble burst. So we all know that Japan lost World War II, was nuked and then occupied by the Americans, and then managed to recover, but it came at a price: exporting Japanese goods meant that Western goods were imported and replaced what was traditionally Japanese. Characteristics of the Late Showa are: -Western Motifs -Western Designs -Western Colors Kimono production declined sharply as everyone was now wearing Western clothing, so they were mostly being produced for formal occasions only and, when they were produced, they were made to emulate the fashion trends of the West. Bold colors with geometric patterns of the 1960s? Totally there. Bright rainbow colors from the 1970s? You bet. The weird color combinations and designs from the 1980s? Oh yes. Due to this overwhelming Western influence kimono fashion didn’t really change much during this time, but Western motifs were basically a staple in some way or another on all kimono (ROSES! RAINBOWS!). You know how no one ever wants to remember 80s fashion? Yeah, I think the kimono industry would like to forget too. Sleeves on kimono (minus furisode) became shorter and the once lucky red lining fell out of favor for the more Western cream color. Emperor Hirohito, one of the longest serving monarchs in history, dies in 1989 and his son, Emperor Akihito takes over, giving us the Heisei Period. This is the current period and began counting at 1990, so we’re about to end Heisei 28 and usher in Heisei 29. Characteristics of the Heisei Period are: -Revival of Traditional Techniques (Tsujigahana) -Revival of Traditional Designs -New Materials Besides the change of emperors Japan saw a gigantic overall change around the same time: the prosperity bubble that just kept on growing since the 1950s finally popped and Japan found itself in a giant recession. As seems obvious, kimono production slowed to an all-time low in the 1990s. People feared that everything that was traditionally Japanese, including the geisha, would become extinct by the turn of the millennium. But then something revolutionary happened and it would lead to a kimono revival: the internet. Gone were the days of trying to find information from books in libraries! Now you could find information on whatever you wanted at the tip of your fingers. With this proliferation of information an interesting thing occurred: people were re-discovering Japan’s (almost) lost treasures. With these discoveries came the need to produce more to meet demand, and what was once thought to be lost was found again. To suit all budgets kimono were being made with new materials like polyester for easy washing, so now anyone could wear a kimono. After seeing the beautiful antique kimono of the Taisho Period these motifs and methods became popular again for kimono, with kimono being re-printed with the help of computers. But, the biggest addition to kimono fashion was the revival of Tsujigahana, a tie dye technique that had been lost since the 16th century. Around the turn of the Showa and Heisei periods Itchiku Kubota finally perfected his new revival of Tsujigahana (辻が花) after decades of trial and error and his kimono went on display in countries around the world. Tsujigahana is an incredibly labor intensive process of paste resist dyeing, free hand drawing, and tie dyeing. It really is beautiful and it’s easy to see why everyone wanted a tsujigahana piece. Tsujigahana is still popular with kimono today (it’s really, really pretty and you can appreciate it more if you can see it up close). So, now that we got all of that out of the way, it’s much easier to define the kimono of the Edo Period (the first period). It was literally everything that the other periods weren’t. Characteristics of Edo Period kimono are: -Designs Staying Within Panels -Small Motifs -Embroidery and Paint -Movement As stated earlier, this is the hardest period to summarize as not many examples or writings have survived. What has survived shows us how the kimono was viewed very differently back when the country was still closed. Motifs were mainly within their own panels and crossed into others in small sections to tie everything together, most kimono had small bunches of motifs painted all over with some of them being completely embroidered over with threads that were same color as the paint. The most interesting feature of these kimono is the movement. There were so many lines, usually diagonal, that lead the viewer’s eyes across the kimono and, although the motifs looked solid, the entire piece seemed to flow in a harmonious manner. The effect is really stunning when worn. That turned out to be really, really long, so sorry about the length. I hope that this answered some of your questions ^^