Her Haughtynesses Decree

Sunday, December 25, 2022

西施 | Xi Shi | 505-473 BCE | Bijin #17

Xi Shi (c.505 - 473 BCE | Xi of the West) is one of the 4 great Ancient Chinese Beauties.[1][2] These 4 women are known today more by their legendary status and reflect a great deal of Beauty Standards from the era they existed in. Each began their stories in the courts of noblemen, although Xi Shi covers how well we can see the development from background to foreground womens role became as beauties between the Han and Tang Dynasties (220 BCE - 907 CE). Xi reflects how Meiren went from literal tradable merchandise, to the Drunken Lotus type (that is a heavenly level of beauty who Tang era women could recognise in their revelry) who sat around in the Palace Poetry of Tang court poets reclining, drinking and fanning themselves thinking of their Handsome lovers back home in total luxury. Xi's story reflects this shift in the beauty standard which saw men as sole arbitrater to female enfranchisement during the Tang Dynasty in the epochs literature.

Modern representation of Xi (c1700) He Dazi | 赫達資

Xi in Love

During this time, Xi's King, the Lord of Yue had been defeated by his neighbours, the King of Wu. So naturally, the advisor to the King of Yue suggested that they capture young women to turn into spies of the bedchamber who would be sent to spy on the King of Wu.

Xi story essentially follows this line of bizarre logic as beginning her tale as a lowly servant girl who is happened upon by roaming court officials in Southern coastal China. Roving court official Fan Li takes a liking to her after seeing nature stop in its tracks and decided she would make an excellent sex spy and was trained for 3 years in the art of blowdarts and sent away by 490 BCE.[8][14] During this time, Xi was sent as part of a 'trade convoy' with Jade, Horses and Exotic Food to the King of Wu.

Apparently that plan worked, because the King of Wu starts ignoring state affairs to just stare at Xi. He killed his advisors and built a pleasure palace.[8] The Pleasure palace consisted of many women, who slept surrounded by many treasures and rose at the moon, drew back their pearl blinds and moon gazed. They would paint their faces surrounded by canopies (like a fly screen my grandfather used to use in the summer) of pearls, like phoenixes flapping around in light autumn mists.[14]

Everything was great until the Yue kingdom attacked once again, (fifth times the charm eh?) to find these two sitting underneath bamboo trees, as radiant as goddesses (they also sent a Ms.Deng). Xi manages to return to Yue. When she returns, she is said to fall in love with Minister Fan Li, and like the great natural  beauty she is, the pair go by boat never to be seen again, at night![8] 

Xi's way with Mei

The stories originate from the writings of Zhuang ( 369 - 286 BCE), before the first time China began burning books which led to the first Chinese Dynasty, the Ch'ing (221 BCE - 226 CE).[3][4] During these times, people like Zhuang were officially court appointed, the Heimin were spoken for under the 'Minor Talks' school of thought.[5] Zhuang is only handed down to us as a scholarly poet who wrote of the 'great beauties' of the past who were bewitching they scared nature.[6] 

The beautiful Xishi, troubled with heartburn, frowned at her neighbors. An ugly woman of the neighborhood, seeing that Xishi was beautiful, went home and likewise pounded her breast and frowned at her neighbors. But at the sight of her, the rich men of the neighborhood shut tight their gates and would not venture out, while the poor men grabbed their wives and children by the hand and scampered off. The woman understood that someone frowning could be beautiful, but she did not understand where the beauty of the frown came from.[7]

Xi was said to be a true beauty, one of nature in this sense and upheld the Beauty standard of the time, which was to be slender with long black hair. Zhuangzi and subsequent writers after him when contemplating Mei ( 美 | Beauty ) in this way rejected therefore fake/false beauty and accepted there is a spectrum of natural beauties. It was these natural beauties who represented the genuine which were to be revered as Damei ( ?? | Great Beauty ) which was held by the aesthetic and inner beauty of anyone, but which was not made but only produced naturally.[7] This was a reflection of Zhuang's following of the Dao ( | Way );

For this reason, whether you point to a little stalk or a great pillar, a leper or the beautiful Xishi, things ribald and shady, or things grotesque and strange, the dao makes them all into one. Their dividedness is their completeness; their completeness is their impairment. [...] Only the man of far-reaching vision knows how to make them into one. So he has no use [for categories] but relegates all to the constant. The constant is the useful; the useful is the passable; the passable is the successful; and with success, all is accomplished. He relies on this alone, relies on it and does not know he is doing so. This is called the dao.[7]

Zhuang also warned against the attainment and influence of beauty. Instead Zhuang encouraged us not to want for aesthetic or beautiful perfection, but to instead understand our own flaws and to understand that these give us their own unique beauty or advantages.[7] In the sense that Xi however started off life as a relative pauper however, Zhuang was also teaching scholars of the time the idea that you can be both beautiful and poor as well, that beauty arises in all things, types and variants even if we cannot imagine it to be do so. It is in following truthful openness to beauty, that Damei arises.

Palace Poetry

In following the great Tang tradition, Palace Poetry, that is poetry about beautiful women locked in the Harem wing of Imperial Kings and Courtiers Palace Mansions also conferred a place on Xi Shi. Wang Mei (699-759) for example wrote of how Xi wore Makeup, Silk clothes and of other women imitating her eyebrows.[9] Li Bai ( 701-762 CE) wrote:

Xi-Shi, a girl spotted on a stream in Yüeh,
Was born of parents from Chu-lo Hill.
Her beauty overshadowed women past and present,
And her lovely face put lotus flowers to shame.
She washed yarn, played with the green water,
And spent her leisure with the clear ripples.
Indeed her white teeth rarely opened to speak,
And her thoughts tarried in the blue sky.
Exalted by Kou-chien, who was looking for a supreme beauty,
She entered the Kingdom of Wu,
Where she was raised above others in the Kuan-wa Palace.
Distant and elusive she is nowhere to be found:
The moment Fu Chai’s Kingdom was destroyed, She disappeared, and, in the ages that followed, was seen no more.[10]

Xi Shi here was compared to the Lotus Flower, perhaps a reference to that saucy new religion Buddhism to refer to ephemeral beauty, an idea Japanese people later developed as Mono no Aware ( Beauty of Transience ). She also is considered to have white teeth even though she is low in court rank, another confusing double bind. Bai then writes:

The time when the crows are roosting on the terrace of Ku-su, is when, in the Wu king’s palace, Xi Shi is growing drunk.

The songs of Wu and dances of Ch’u—their pleasures had not reached its height, As the green hills were about to swallow a half side of the sun.

From waterclock more and more drips away, from the basin of gold with its silver arrow, And they rise and they watch the autumn moon sink down in the river’s waves,

As in the east the sun grows higher, what shall their joy be then?[10]

In this poem, Bai is alluding under the setting sun that the Wu kingdom is collapsing, (mentioning the negative imagery of crows also). The falling autumn moon being the most exciting motif, as it alludes to the feelings of our wonderful heroine in being unable to return to Yue to be with Lan Fi. It is this sense that we can become excited about Palace poetry and palace beauties as they offer the first classical instances of offering agency for beauties, partiularly women. Xi Shi is not meant to be admired for her aesthetical beauty, even though she has it, but instead she is to admired for her personal characteristics. 

The moon as a motif, shows how Ying and Yang were presented by some Confucian scholars, with Sun being the male, Lunar motifs as female, complementing one another. Palace poetry though centers women as the mainstay of the narrative, that Xi becomes a protagonist all listeners should heed the advice of in following their discipline. In this sense, the Yang (Sun) is dying as it is unbeautiful, intolerant. The Moon rather is rising as Xi's victory will do. It is here that we see that this is not The kings world, but Xi's world. She is the agent of her own destiny, the moral compass of the poem.

Other moral truths coming from the ephemeral beauty of Xi expound that to hold this fairy-like, nymph or heavenly beauty is only something that one can have from birth. Bai writes:

Summer

On the Mirror Lake three hundred li around

Gaily the lotus lilies bloom.

She gathers them—Queen Xi-Shi, in Maytime!

A multitude jostles on the back, watching.

Her boat turns back without watching the moonrise,

And glides away to the house of the amorous Yueh king.[10]

Bai's use of the idea of Summer delivers the Yang aspect of Xi's beauty. It is said that Yang represents 'masculinity' which tells us a lot about why Palace poetry is quite so Palace-poetry in the first place. Using the motif of Summer, Xi becomes active agent who tips the natural balance back to its correct state, that is returning back to a domesticity of society which sees Kings no longer ruling as tyrants. Jealousy and imitation of Xi's power (her eyebrows, gestures and personality) are shown to be false pretenses against Xi's original power (Xi's Lotus Flower face) and she is unable to be matched, 300 Li around. Gathering her Lotus Blossoms at a peculiar hour she is followed by these imitators who can only watch on at her feminine power and beauty as it rises with the moon. 

Women in Power

Women had long being holding public office, writing and power since the time of the Duchess of Wey,  Ms.Nanzi ( active 534 - 480 BCE ) in lieu of her gay husband, Ban Zhao ( 49-120 CE) of her writings & Empress Jia Nanfeng ( 257-300 CE ) for her disabled husband. Palace poetry is set against the backdrop of the imperial carnage that was the 7th/8th century in Imperial Tang China as caused by squabbling men. A time of constant civil warring until the state was unified under the first outright Empress Wu Zetian ( 624-705 CE) by 665CE which lead to a period of unbridled imperial success, sparking the golden era of Chinese Art, aesthetics and womens rights otherwise known as the Tang era. Following her death in 705, her daughter Princess Taiping (c662 - 713CE) was the real powerhouse behind the throne even though her husband technically was Emperor. When her lesbian lover, Shuangguan Wan'er ( 664-710 ) died, Taiping buried her 'mountain of muse' with a noblewomens burial rites even though she was an unpopular figure in her lifetime.[11]

It is against this backdrop of women being in real power for nearly half a century which allows a blossoming of feminine power. That is the idea women can be powerful at all being considered. It was in this climate that Palace poetry increasingly gave 'Yang' to women, that is agency in the poetry of the time. During the early Tang period, most Meiren (Beauties) were to be admonished, as Empress Jia was in the 5th century in the Admonitions of the Court Instructress scroll as a WOC who stepped beyond her societally acceptable place. When Wu Zetian came to power however, this changed of course becuase you didn't get to draw anti-Empress propaganda under Wu Zetian, you just got beheaded. So women in the male gaze increasingly reflected this new power dynamic, they became more active agents.

Palace poetry reflected this shift towards women doing things, just as they would in the next century when they became ardent art patrons, supporters of Buddhism and more vocally active participants in society. Suddenly, the 'Harem' so to speak demanded respect, otherwise all of those Meiren would up and go to the monastery to write about you for all posterity as Nuns. So the image of the meek, gentle women who 'conceals beauty within' herself, of course only in the bedroom or kitchen became one of the more active 'pining beauty' trope, where the young, beautiful, wise, all-knowing, pampered beauty sitting around fanning herself in the Imperial Mansions of Wu longing for Fan Li became in a Duchess of Wei, the Ancient Tang version of the New Woman.[12] This is why women like Xi, suddenly have backstories, attributes and personalities like as a humble silk-washer, all elegantly drunk.[14]

The Drunken Lotus Bijin

In context therefore, we see that Beauty was being discussed during the Ancient Chinese dynastical period as a way to conceptualise transcendental pleasure.[7] Being beautiful was not the ability to be aesthetical, but rather to embody an inner grace and beauty from within. The tale of Xi from the West was a moral story about how beauty should be used to understand that the educated must learn to think outside of the box rather than simply turning to the familiar. Xi was a beautiful human being, not an aesthetically pleasing woman. It is in this sense that ancient Chinese scholars addressed how beauty should be thought of and approached in the metaphysical sense under newly emerging power dynamics which saw women ruling and expressing themselves in the Imperial Courts.

When we think of how this was handed down to Japanese people, this is the idea that to be a Beauty is to be virtuous, self-sacrificing, tolerant and authentically natural. These values supposedly allowed the ugly to become beautiful and the pauper to become a palace beauty in the popular Tang imagination, beginning the trope of the Palace Beauty: often a woman who leads a secluded life in imperial concubinage who longs for another, primping and passing the time in luxury. Xi in her initial pre-Imperial writings is a passive agent, who through renewed lenses by the Tang era, a more likely point of contact for Noble Japanese women, became an active negotiator of the Tang era Palace Poetry by the 6th century. This established her beauty as one pursued by women, crafting Xi in their own likeness as a symbolic feminine Beauty of Mei or Bijin standards.

In that vein I leave you with the explicitly aesthetical Bai poem:

A girl from Ruoye Stream with a face like Jade,

Whose Black Eyebrows beset carmine makeup,

A pair of golden-yellow clogs,

And two feet as white as snow.[14]

Bibliography

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xi_Shi

[2] http://en.chinaculture.org/2017-05/04/content_998481.htm#:~:text=Chinese%20ancestors%20became%20adults%20at,00%2Dyear%2Dold%20history.

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_of_books_and_burying_of_scholars

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhuang_Zhou

[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundred_Schools_of_Thought#School_of_%22Minor-talks%22

[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Beauties

[7] Beauty (Mei, 美) in the Zhuangzi and Contemporary Theories of Beauty, Peng Feng, 2020, Volume 54, No.2, pp.22-34, The Journal of Aesthetic Education | https://fh.pku.edu.cn/docs/2020-04/20200415132901819403.pdf

[8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xi_Shi

[9] https://hellopoetry.com/poem/14731/the-beautiful-xi-shi/

[10] Li Bai's eight poems about Xi Shi, Liang Ying, September 2011, Volume 1, No.3, pp.159-161 Journal of Literature and Art Studies, ISSN 2159-5836 | https://www.davidpublisher.com/Public/uploads/Contribute/551e2b55bf6fd.pdf

[11] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shangguan_Wan%27er

[12] See Bijin #16

[14] The Silent Beauty: Changing Portrayals of Xi Shi, from "Zhiguai" and Poetry to Ming Fiction and Drama, Olivia Milburn, 2013, Volume 26, No. 1, pp.26-33, Asia Major

 Bijin Series Timeline

11th century BCE

- The Ruqun becomes a formal garment in China (1000 BCE) [Coming Soon]

8th century BCE

- Chinese clothing becomes highly hierarchical (771 BCE) [Coming Soon] 

3rd century BCE

Xi Shi (flourished c201-900CE); The Drunken Lotus Bijin

2cnd century BCE

        - The Han Dynasty

0000 Current Era

1st century

        - Han Tomb portraiture begins as an extension of Confucian Ancestor Worship; first Han aesthetic                                scholars dictate how East Asian composition and art ethics begin

                       - Isometric becomes the standard for East Asian Composition (c.100); Dahuting Tomb Murals

                       - Ban Zhao introduces Imperial Court to her Lessons for Women (c106);                                      Women play major roles in the powerplay of running of China consistently                                until 1000 CE, influencing Beauty standards

                       - Qiyun Shengdong begins to make figures more plump and Bijin-like (c.150) but still pious

4th century

Gu Kaizhi (active 364-406); Metaphorical Beauty

        - Chinese Artists begin to make aesthetic beauties in ethereal religious roles of heavenly Nymphs

                       - Luo River Nymph Tale (c.400)

          - Womens clothing emphasized the waist as the Guiyi (Swallow-Tail Flying Ribbons) style (c.400)

                       - Wise and Benevolent Women (c.400)

5th century

          - Chinese Art becomes decadent; Imperial Culture begins to see more expression in religious statues (c450)

                       - Longmen Grotto Boddhisattvas (471)

6th century

           - Women begin inspiring Pining Love poetry inspiring many artists

Xu Ling; (active 537-583); Gongti or Palace Bijin [Coming Soon] https://www.jstor.org/stable/495525?seq=2#metadata_info_tab_contents

7th century

            - Tang Dynasty Art (618-908)

           - Rouged Bijin (600-699 CE) [Coming Soon] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Paintings_of_the_Tang_Dynasty

Yan Liben (active 642-673); Bodhisattva Bijin [Coming Soon] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%E0%B8%81%E0%B8%A7%E0%B8%99%E0%B8%AD%E0%B8%B4%E0%B8%A1.jpg Guan Yin 

Wu Zetian (active 665-705); The Great Tang Art Patron [Coming Soon]

Asuka Bijin (c.699); The Wa Bijin

8th century

            - Princess Yongtai's Veneration Murals (701) [Coming Soon]

- Introduction of Chinese Tang Dynasty clothing (710)

- Sumizuri-e (710)

Yang Yuhuan Guifei (719-756); [Coming Soon] East Asian Supermodel Bijin https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/275768522.pdf https://factsanddetails.com/china/cat2/4sub9/entry-5437.html#chapter-5

Zhang Xuan (active 720-755); [Coming Soon]

- What is now Classical Chinese Art forms

                    - An Lushun Rebellion (757) 

 Zhou Fang (active 766-805) ; Qiyun Bijin

- Emakimono Golden Age (799-1400)

9th century

                       - Buddhist Bijin [Coming Soon] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Paintings_of_the_Tang_Dynasty#/media/File:Noble_Ladies_Worshiping_Buddha.jpg + https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mogao_Caves#/media/File:Anonymous-Bodhisattva_Leading_the_Way.jpg

10th century

                       -End of Tang Art (907)

13th century

                     - Heimin painters; 1200-1850; Town Beauty

15th century 

- Fuzokuga Painting schools; Kano (1450-1868) and Tosa (1330-1690) 

Tang Yin (active 1490-1524); Chinese Beauties [Coming Soon] https://www.comuseum.com/painting/masters/tang-yin/ 

16 century 

- Nanbanjin Art (1550-1630) 

- Wamono style begins under Chanoyu teachings (c1550-1580)

- Byobu Screens (1580-1670)

 - End of Sengoku Jidai brings Stabilisation policy (1590-1615)  

17th century  

- Land to Currency based Economy Shift (1601-1655)

- Early Kabuki Culture (1603-1673) ; Yakusha-e or Actor Prints

- Machi-Eshi Art ( 1610 - 1710) ; The Town Beauty

- Sumptuary legislation in reaction to the wealth of the merchant classes (1604-1685) 

- Regulation of export and imports of foreign trade in silk and cotton (1615-1685)  

Iwasa Matabei (active 1617-1650) ; Yamato-e Bijin  

The Hikone Screen (c.1624-1644) [Coming Soon]

- Sankin-Kotai (1635-1642) creates mass Urbanisation  

- Popular culture and print media production moves from Kyoto to Edo (1635-1650); Kiyohara Yukinobu (1650-1682) ; Manji Classical Beauty

- Shikomi-e (1650-1670) and Kakemono-e which promote Androgynous Beauties;

 Iwasa Katsushige (active 1650-1673) ; Kojin Bijin

- Mass Urbanisation instigates the rise of Chonin Cottage Industry Printing (1660-1690) ; rise of the Kabunakama Guilds and decline of the Samurai

- Kanazoshi Books (1660-1700); Koshokubon Genre (1659?-1661)

- Shunga (1660-1722); Abuna-e

Kanbun Master/School (active during 1661-1673) ; Maiko Bijin 

- Hinagata Bon (1666 - 1850) 

- Ukiyo Monogatari is published by Asai Ryoi (1666) 

Yoshida Hanbei (active 1664-1689) ; Toned-Down Bijin

- Asobi/Suijin Dress Manuals (1660-1700)

- Ukiyo-e Art (1670-1900)

Hishikawa Moronobu (active 1672-1694) ; Wakashu Bijin

- Early Bijin-ga begin to appear as Kakemono (c.1672)  

- Rise of the Komin-Chonin Relationship (1675-1725)

- The transit point from Kosode to modern Kimono (1680); Furisode, Wider Obi 

- The Genroku Osaka Bijin (1680 - 1700) ; Yuezen Hiinakata

Sugimura Jihei (active 1681-1703) ; Technicolour Bijin 

- The Amorous Tales are published by Ihara Saikaku (1682-1687)

Hishikawa Morofusa (active 1684-1704) [Coming Soon]

- The Beginning of the Genroku Era (1688-1704)

- The rise of the Komin and Yuujo as mainstream popular culture (1688-1880) 

- The consolidation of the Bijinga genre as mainstream pop culture 

- The rise of the Torii school (1688-1799) 

- Tan-E (1688-1710)   

Miyazaki Yuzen (active 1688-1736) ; Genroku Komin and Wamono Bijin 

Torii Kiyonobu (active 1688 - 1729) : Commercial Bijin

Furuyama Moromasa (active 1695-1748)

18th century

Nishikawa Sukenobu (active 1700-1750) [Coming Soon]

Kaigetsudo Ando (active 1700-1736) ; Broadstroke Bijin

Okumura Masanobu (active 1701-1764)

Kaigetsudo Doshin (active 1704-1716) [Coming Soon]

Baioken Eishun (active 1710-1755) [Coming Soon]

Kaigetsudo Anchi (active 1714-1716) [Coming Soon]

Yamazaki Joryu (active 1716-1744) [Coming Soon]

1717 Kyoho Reforms

Miyagawa Choshun (active 1718-1753) [Coming Soon]

Miyagawa Issho (active 1718-1780) [Coming Soon]

Nishimura Shigenaga (active 1719-1756) [Coming Soon]

Matsuno Chikanobu (active 1720-1729) [Coming Soon]

- Beni-E (1720-1743)

Torii Kiyonobu II (active 1725-1760) [Coming Soon]

- Uki-E (1735-1760)

Kawamata Tsuneyuki (active 1736-1744) [Coming Soon]

Kitao Shigemasa (1739-1820)

Miyagawa Shunsui (active from 1740-1769) [Coming Soon]

Benizuri-E (1744-1760)

Ishikawa Toyonobu (active 1745-1785) [Coming Soon]

Tsukioka Settei (active 1753-1787) [Coming Soon]

Torii Kiyonaga (active 1756-1787) [Coming Soon]

Shunsho Katsukawa (active 1760-1793) [Coming Soon]

Utagawa Toyoharu (active 1763-1814) [Coming Soon]

Suzuki Harunobu (active 1764-1770) [Coming Soon]

- Nishiki-E (1765-1850)

Torii Kiyonaga (active 1765-1815) [Coming Soon]

Kitao Shigemasa (active 1765-1820) [Coming Soon]

Maruyama Okyo (active 1766-1795) [Coming Soon]

Kitagawa Utamaro (active 1770-1806) [Coming Soon]

Kubo Shunman (active 1774-1820) [Coming Soon]

Tsutaya Juzaburo (active 1774-1797) [Coming Soon]

Utagawa Kunimasa (active from 1780-1810) [Coming Soon]

Tanehiko Takitei (active 1783-1842) [Coming Soon]

Katsukawa Shuncho (active 1783-1795) [Coming Soon]

Choubunsai Eishi (active 1784-1829) [Coming Soon]

Eishosai Choki (active 1786-1808) [Coming Soon]

Rekisentei Eiri (active 1789-1801) [Coming Soon] [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Ukiyo-e_paintings#/media/File:Rekisentei_Eiri_-_'800),_Beauty_in_a_White_Kimono',_c._1800.jpg]

Chokosai Eisho (active 1792-1799) [Coming Soon]

Kunimaru Utagawa (active 1794-1829) [Coming Soon]

Utagawa Toyokuni II (active 1794 - 1835) [Coming Soon]

Ryūryūkyo Shinsai (active 1799-1823) [Coming Soon]

19th century

Teisai Hokuba (active 1800-1844) [Coming Soon]

Totoya Hokkei (active 1800-1850) [Coming Soon]

Utagawa Kunisada Toyokuni III (active 1800-1865) [Coming Soon]

Urakusai Nagahide (active from 1804) [Coming Soon]

Kitagawa Tsukimaro (active 1804 - 1836)

Kikukawa Eizan (active 1806-1867) [Coming Soon]

Keisai Eisen (active 1808-1848) [Coming Soon]

Utagawa Kuniyoshi (active 1810-1861) [Coming Soon]

Utagawa Hiroshige (active 1811-1858) [Coming Soon]

Yanagawa Shigenobu (active 1818-1832) [Coming Soon]

Utagawa Kunisada II (active 1844-1880) [Coming Soon]

Toyohara Kunichika (active 1847-1900) [Coming Soon]

Kano Hogai (active 1848-1888) [Coming Soon]

Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (active 1850-1892) [Coming Soon]

Toyohara Chikanobu (active 1875-1912) [Coming Soon]

Kiyokata Kaburaki (active 1891-1972) [Coming Soon]

Goyo Hashiguchi (active 1899-1921) [Coming Soon]

20th century

Yumeji Takehisa (active 1905-1934) [Coming Soon]

Torii Kotondo (active 1915-1976) [Coming Soon]

Yamakawa Shūhō (active 1927-1944) [Coming Soon]


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Sunday, December 11, 2022

ひとめ刺し | Hitomezashi | Single Stab Stitch | Pattern #16

Hitome-sashi/zashi (One Stab Stitch) is a type of Sashiko stitching.[1] Sashiko stitching being the famous white on blue technique of almost embroidery. The stitch makes up a geometric pattern from these white running stitches, sometimes wide sometimes miniscule to decorate or repair fabrics in a grid pattern.[2] As a task, Sashiko is said to be both therapeutic and time-consuming requiring a great deal of patience and concentration. Hitomezashi derives mostly from the practical applications of Sashiko and therefore was historically used for work uniforms, today it is mostly for repairing old clothstuffs. Many older examples come from Noragi (  野良着 | Workcoats) and Sashiko no Donzu (Fishermens coats) that have survived.[4]

Hitomezashi was originally used by Heimin as a way to mend old farming and fishermens textiles like Hemp or Ramie from the North of Japan, from around the Yamagata to Hokkaido areas.[1][4] Items started out life as Kosode, then became bags, aprons and cleaning rags.[4] Between 1600 - 1850, a majority of the working classes produced their own textiles due to the expense of buying new fabrics. It is thought that decorative stitches such as Hitomezashi originated as an ergonomic way to mend, fill in and layer fabrics for winter, becoming decorative through processes such as Tsukuroi-Sashi ( 繕いー刺しDarning Sashiko) by using undyed thread and repeatedly Darning older textiles into new ones every year. These skills were taught in school and at home to the children of farmers and fishermen.[4] Hitomezashi also spread around Japan byway of major trade routes like the Tokaido.[2][3]

Hitomezashi (c1850[2017], PD) Mr Bolton

During the Meiji period with the increase of Japan Inc, Japanese culture spread globally. Thus when agricultural workers moved to Hawaii, they took Hitomezashi with them, using it to repair their work clothes there, spreading the textile.[5] It may have also spread to Continental North America and other countries in the British Empire as it was popular during the 70's and 80's to adopt Japanese adjacent techniques among the middle class as an domestic Aestheticism (1868-1899) embroidery technique. In Japan with the promulgation of the industrialization efforts of Meiji Japan, Japan Inc. began to introduce new fabrics by 1870, making cotton available for those in Northern Japan.[3] In 1884, 'Sanitary Dress' was sent by the Japanese Government to display Health in the Workplace at the Health Exhibition. In the Exhibition  (likely Hitomezashi), Sashiko was displayed to showcase how Mens uniforms (Hakama) were made in Japan.[6] 

By the beginning of the 20th century however, Hitomezashi began to fall out of usage in favour of modern textiles flashy textiles. Meisen became more popular and workwear often became Tsumugi and  other wools as Japan Inc expanded in the 1910s and 20s.[7] Whilst Hitomezashi fell out of widespread use by the 1950s due to the import of quilting, older generations still held onto and used the technique. Northern Japanese communities still practice and teach Sashiko classes, a practice around since at least the 1990s. In the modern day, Kogin (another type of Sashiko) developed from Hitomezashi stitch.[4]

Bibliography

[1] Sashiko 365: Stitch a new sashiko embroidery pattern every day of the year, Susan Briscoe, 2022, p.5 | https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=fyqdEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT6&dq=sashiko+farmers&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjp59Wyhe37AhWPSMAKHdO4BtQQuwV6BAgKEAc#v=onepage&q=sashiko%20farmers&f=false

[2] https://www.athreadedneedle.com/blogs/with-a-threaded-needle/sashiko-kogin-hitomezashi-boro-what-are-we-stitching 

[3] Sashiko Pattern Book for Beginners: A Japanese Embroidery Art of Stitching, Angela Kemp, 2010, pp.10-11

[4] The Ultimate Sashiko Sourcebook: Patterns, Projects and Inspirations, Susan Briscoe, 2016, pp.8-15

[5] Japanese Immigrant Clothing in Hawaii 1885-1941, Barbara F. Kawakami, 1995

[6] Health Exhibition Literature, Executive Council of the International Health Exhibition, Council for the Society of the Arts, 1884, p.605 | https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=2fYTAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA605&dq=sashiko&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiTptDkm-37AhUxTEEAHbStBKcQuwV6BAgEEAY#v=onepage&q=sashiko&f=false

[7] See Fabrics #5

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