Her Haughtynesses Decree

Sunday, September 17, 2023

ヘルマンの'着物' | Herman's 'Kimono' | 2021 | Essay 21

In this essay I look at another Kimonope, specifically another Miss Universe 'national costume' entry.[1] This particular Kimonope represents the legacy of Macarthism's neo-colonial/systemic racism, and subjugation of Japanese soft-power, a follow on of Orientalist late 19th/early 20th century assumptions and stereotypes of Asian culture and peoples which saw their subjugation in American foreign and domestic policy between 1885-1952.[3][4][5][6] In this entry, we see a clear leaning into the 'Cool Japan' aesthetic by the Kimonope's designer, who is not shockingly not Japanese, but Israeli and therefore represents ideas about what Kimono are to this designer than the genuine article would to other participants of KTC, foreigner or otherwise towards 'Kimono'.[1][5]

An example of what should have been (2018, CC4.0) Nesnad

The Individuals Responsible

The great designer himself was the notable Aviad Arik Herman (b.1984), an Israeli costume and fashion designer who seems to work exclusively in pageant costumes.[1] An Israeli designer was chosen to represent the symbolic weight of the 70 year celebration of diplomatic relations between Japan and Israel.[1] Herman was supposedly inspired by 'Harajuku fashion culture' which sounds more something my highschool textiles design teacher came out with than a high level designer on a global stage, but here we are.[1]

Ms Juri Watanabe (b.1995) is arguably American-Asian having grown up in a diverse family, home and school environment, going into the pageant world in 2016.[1][2] 

The Event

The 2021 Miss Universe pageant occurred in Israel at Eilat and the Kimonope worn by the Japanese-Korean representative, Juri Watanabe for the 'National Costume' section.[1] Kimono Wednesdays could never. Yes Im still salty.

I will point you to my previous thoughts on Kimono as 'national costumes':

Kimono after the 1950s fell away from its mores from 1900-1940 of being an exotic, expensive textile, to being a garment worn by a defeated nation when Japan became occupied by the USA from 1946-1952. During this time, elements of society which pushed Longingism, which gained traction from 1885-1920s America with the rise of Asian labour movements and immigration into the USA, created the Kimonope, which associated the Kimono as an 'Oriental' garment.[3]

[For me,] Kimono is a type of clothing which can be worn by anyone, an idea which the broadcaster NHK clearly thought so as well. Japanese Americans, whilst rightfully having the historical claim to the Kimono [...], perhaps did not foresee the global issues that claiming the Kimono as a 'Traditional Garment' may bring [...]. This [Traditional Garment/National Costume] Argument being unfortunately a spearhead of the 'culture wars' inspired by Wilsonianism which declares that non-White powers may not be considered or constituted in the worlds of academic, politics and popular culture [... in] being considered global popular culture. Instead that [...] that 'developing' countries instead be left to 'develop' away from the wealth of the United States, [...] a sort of FU to the fact that Japan had entered the world stage as a great power, and thus denial of all things Japanese as bad. [Instead the benevolent USA must prevent Communism and return ...] everything [...] back to its natural [Wilsonian] order [...]. Kimono as a visible [Asian/Japanese] cultural marker, were by this point definitively recognised by the Japonisme movement at the very least, as global popular culture [in the early 20th century], and thus the birth of the Traditional Argument (ie that Kimono is simply just a Japanese garment only to prevent pan-Asian interests taking root) and breaking down of US-Japanese relations began (seFred Korematsu v United States, 1944-2018). [...This argument is] the very trap Wilsonianism lays for 'developing' nations. It isolates the object in question (here Kimono), rips it asunder from its history, values and context, and flings it to the sorting bins of history where nobody will find it. Kimono Wednesday protests meant well, but in the end, they have sent the wrong messages to the wrong people, and helped to isolate, relegate and simplify Kimono into a relic of the Yamato. That is to say deny how the Kimono played a role in and from Asian Empires, to ignore the Kimono as a global presence in Western and other Art Histories, and to penultimately again, isolate, relegate and simplify the Kimono into an exotic national costume, worn by the Japanese. A label I do not wish to ever have to repeat here or anywhere else [unless quoting]. By this, I mean [Asian-Americans like Ms.Watanabe] have done Wilsons work for him in promoting the idea of the Kimono as an exotic 'ethnic garment' only to be worn by Japanese people and their descendants, and which denies the wider history of Kimono as a cultural touchstone [instead promoting oriental-adjacent Kimonopes ...] essentially saying that Japanese fashion is less important than American fashion, by relegating Kimono to being a product only worn in the past [...] isolating Kimono as something exotic or 'Japanese' (a fraught argument supporting homogeneity and ethnocentrism) and simplifying the complex worlds which KTC operates in as somehow unworthy of note to anyone who isnt Japanese. As such, I refute that Kimono making is a dying industry on the grounds that is a blatant lie, it is in fact adapting to the age it is in, as it has always done as a social construct, and that to think that one thing can belong to only one group as rather part of the 20th century Wilsonian anti-Asian dogma. [...] Until [considering] how ['Kimono'] was created under Chinese and Korean influence during the Asuka and Kofun periods, and as part of globalisation, not simply as 'a national costume appropriated by Westerners', but rather as with the rest of KTC, and other garments, simply a social construct [as with Western garments, e.g. T-shirts]. This is seen in the paintings, Mandalas, Embroideries and texts extant from the period when corrobarated with wider Mainland Asia garment history. I relate this to Kimono [Wednesdays] because it may allow for a wider dialogue on cultural exchange in the hope not everything 'foreign' is labelled exotic, turned into a problem, lost to history or simplified as just being a 'costume' or 'cultural appropriation' [as if graphic T-shirts for example can only be worn by certain groups of Americans as it is a traditional garment or iconic national American costume].[4]

National Costumes, [...] in English [describe ...] the historically European tradition of giving 'National Costumes' to certain groups [begun] in the 18th century [...] to define what a country was and took off in the 19th in the advent of European Colonization [of] pseudo-classif[ications in ...]  series of illustrated books drawn by many European and later American and Asian artists depicting the 'National Dresses' of certain groups [in ...] 'rational' 'native' outfits which continues as National Costume Colouring books today. [...] an example being the controversial Han-fu for China, [... rather than the Qipao]. Nationality like money and gender, is a social construct; one that at times gatekeeps other ethnic identities from exerting any kind of power and suppresses more diverse national stories. In Britain for example, there is no such definitive thing as a Kimono to call a National Costume. Instead we are often represented by tacky costumes only fit for Halloween which riff on the idea of what it means to be 'British', which axiomatically is a million and one things. [... Consecutively, as a] Beefeater (Yeomans Warder) [since] 1962. [...] Other editions [include ...] the latest by Jeaneatte Akua in a bid to the Pearley Kings and Queens of working class London culture. [...] 'National Costumes' [have] carved out a space for themselves, as a need to make space in a dominant cultural identity which threatened to wipe their own out[, e.g. Tartan ...] I in particular do not refer to Kimono as a National Costume or Dress, as it a patriarchal paternalistic notion of hegemonic cultural/White supremacy that Kimono are distinctly outdated womens attire, only fit for the 'lesser race' (in the words of Leonce Benedite) [or the Dying Kimono trope of...] Macarthism. [... which pushes] the idea that traditional Japanese culture is inferior to the superior Western culture. [...] Akiko Kojima [..., another older Miss Universe, wore] Kimono as everyday or at least casual wear, not as a traditional 'Oriental costume'. [... In Kojima's time,] generally civilian Japanese had not got the message yet about Americas superiority complex. [Changing by ...] the 1960s when Japan, as [in 1860 'Westernized' ...] to reclaim its own [... soft power agency]. This internalized Macarthism is reflected in the way Ms. Akiko was represented in American society [... by] Harpers Bazaar, a magazine that refused previously to run models of 'color' in its pages [and was strikingly] presented in Western dress, not Kimono [... telling] us of the fact that Kimono was not considered fashionable enough to be considered as fashion in its own right, instead Akiko wore *acceptable* white brands such as Sarff-Zumpano Inc. [... at a time when Honshu Japanese dealt] with the caveat of internalized inferiority dealt with the idea that 'Japan lost the [Pacific] war'. This attitude in Japan commonly refers to the postwar generation of Japanese Teeners [...] who felt the burden of growing up in the shadow of Macarthism, in a world which saw the subjugation of Japanese culture as 'feudal', saw Japanese people as 'savages' for fighting on the wrong side of WWII and the unlawful incarceration of Nissei Americans (1942-1947). When 'Sukiyaki' was released to Western audiences it gave notions of Beef dinner, to a Japanese Teener, Ue o Muite Arukō (I look up as I walk) was reminiscient of the frustration of dealing with American occupation in the Anpo protests (1959-1970) and the Sunagawa Struggle (1955-1956). Its culmination being the murder of Chinese-American Vincent Chin in 1982 at the hands of Statesian men who thought he was Japanese. [Ergo ...] casual wear of the Kimono becomes a thing of your mothers generation by 1975, and your grandmothers by 1995. [...] When the next winner of Miss Universe wore Kimono, it was as a 'National Costume' in 2007 by Riyo Mori who wore an altered Kimono. Ever since[then] it has been commonly accepted that Japanese pageant goers wear Kimono to the National Costume section of the event. [... Also] 'Cool Japan', a sort of right wing Japanese politicians wet dream of global Japanese hegemony [...] has attempted to adopt the Kimono as a National Costume as well which is a strand of Japanese paternalism [...] about the 'correct way' to wear Kimono [...] mixed with a dash of inferiority complex, [...] is certainly a proponent of the issue of bringing KTC into the global world as global fashion under Macarthism's influence. [Which ...] fosters a disturbingly ethnocentric idea of Kimono, which is also another thorn in the side of KTC. [... Moves towards] national costumes like the Seifuku is particularly reassuring as it is the Death of the 'Dying Kimono' trope, in saying that Kimono is current and alive, and that culturally Japan has more to its 'national' culture than just reasserting 'Wafuku'. Wamono in this sense has shifted to a more inclusive contemporary understanding of the national, away from the stereotypical Longingism of 'coolies' and 'Geisha-girls'. [Overall, ...] many national costumes depends on how we define national culture. Kimono and other 'traditional' garments are often seen as 'national dress' due to the decline of their wear after the introduction of Western power structures, colonization and efforts to 'modernize' under globalisation. After 1955, this evolves from Macarthistic policy, which becomes internalized in Japanese culture by 1970 becoming the 'Dying Kimono' trope, which precipitates that old 'feudal' Japanese culture has been shed off becoming 'modern' Japan. After 1990 though, KTC was revived domestically and has since re-emerged as casual clothing once more both in Japan and globally with the rise of the digital age. [However ...] when we explore how we get to the notion of certain modes of dress being 'Costumes' we can see how this can be a negative reinforcement of existing power structures through lenses such as Macarthism. The Kimonopes which exist in these spaces are often attempts at cultural appreciation, but more often are regarded as objects of cultural appropriation by many. Thankfully, we can also see post 2005, a resurgence in the pageant and fashion worlds of KTC as influential global fashion (for example the 2016 Furisode for Miss Mexico at Miss Latina USA designed by Sueko Oshimoto). This sees the Kimono as a modern incarnation of fashion, part of its revival in the contemporary world we live in and allows Kimono to be seen as desirable in the current beauty standards we ourselves hold, unravelling the work of hwight supremacists. Thus seeing the reemergence of KTC as living, contemporary fashion, as seen in high fashion, beauty pageants and street fashion.[5]
Girl in Harajuku on her phone (2008, CC2.0) Charlotte Marillet

The Result

Watanabe's Highlight Reel (2021, Educational) Youtube

Ms Watanabe finished in 16th place.[2] Thus she did dig her own grave, so perhaps it was quite a spot on Kimonope of a cocktail dress.

As you can see, this resulted in the ... creation before us. This pink-yellow mockery of a cultural besmirching wad of gum underfoot was paraded around by Watanabe in all its stereotypical glory. May we observe the maneki-neko, very Harajuku of course. Or fact this particular design has the Eri folded over incorrectly, such that its wearer may be read as going to her funeral. Muy Harajuku. Perhaps it may be the giant letter scrawled across her bare chest, another set of cultural faux pas in revealing the cleavage or potentially imitating tattoos, a cultural trait seen as inherently negative in its connotations Japan. Sehr Harajuku. We may also observe the perhaps stuck on Chrysanthemum belt or the flags attached to the sleeves. Very, very Harajuku fashion culture.[1] The boots were great though, the 'cocktail dress'[5] not so much. 

Conclusion

In context we can see how two POC people did not quite equal cultural appreciation, but rather an example of cultural appropriation in the promulgation of Kimonope. Rather unnecessarily as well, as members of the definitely not weirdly assimilating free thinking POC block of free-thinkers. Indeed they fell prey to Orientalist, internalized racist tropes which since the 1880s has dictated the terms Kimono's are received to international audiences, that is as objects consumed by white people, for white people. Ignoring the vibrant role of KTC in global history, popular culture and Japanese soft power on the international stage with the advent of Macarthism in the 1940s and the decline of Japanese hard-power during the occupation of Japan by SCAP forces.[3][4][5] This reinforcement of Longingism and Macarthism follows a tradition of seeing Asian-American and Asian workers as 'coolies' and 'Johnny Chinamen' whose labour and culture (the Kimono) was subservient and disposable to that of white North Americans, as seen during the time of Wilsonian and Roosevelt's policy-making, both foreign and domestic.[3][6] 

This inadvertant support of ethnocentrism neo-colonialism makes as much sense as gatekeeping African children from wearing graphic T-shirts Statesian dump on them; (as they are 'products of American culture'/'traditional American dress' and is to only be worn by the 'Statesian race'/that the Pedi Tribe cannot wear Tartan) thrown in the face of Asian-American grandparents who fought to normalize Kimono and other adjacent garments like Qipao, Sari and Việt phục as normal attire against the backdrop of 20th century race relations in neo-colonial systemic structures, which turn the Kimono into an Orientalist costume rather than as contemporary fashion, particularly evident in how people living in Japan reacted to this Kimonope.[1] Kaguyas Verdict: Clear-cut Cultural Appropriation.

Bibliography

[1] https://japantoday.com/category/national/miss-universe-2021-japan-entry-slammed-for-wearing-%27dead-person%E2%80%99s-kimono%27-1

[2] https://conandaily.com/2023/06/01/juri-watanabe-biography-13-things-about-miss-universe-japan-2021/

[3] See Essay #4

[4] See Essay #11

[5] See Essay #16

[6] See Essay #19

Essay Abstracts 

#1 Renee Vivien (1877 - 1909) --- Born Pauline Tarn, was an English lesbian poet. She wrote in French and perhaps English. She took up the style of the Symbolists and Parnassinism and was well known during the era of the Belle Epoque (the Beautiful Age) for producing Sapphic verse and living as an open quasi butch lesbian poet; her verse derived from the ancient poet Sapphos, also famed for her love of women.

# 2 Birth of the Kimonope --- Here I shall introduce the notion of the Kimonope, that is as a garment attached to the social construct of the 'Geisha' in North America. Kimonopes being Orientalized clothing, or 'negatively affiliated or exoticized ethnic dress' which lead to the perceived notion of the Kimono and Geiko as simultaneously both high and low culture to American culture makers, such as film, television, media, writers and some academics. An example of Kimonope are the tacky Halloween costumes you may find at the Dollar store.

#3 The Legacy of the MacArthur Dynasty on KTC & The Problem with the 'Traditional Garment' Argument --- The problem with arguing that the Kimono is a 'Traditional ethnic Garment' is that that assertion is in itself, arguably  Ethnocentrism, which to clarify is the imposition of, in this case, American values onto Japanese cultural values, belaying the 3 pronged pitchfork of idiocy. 

#4 Divine --- Government name Harris Glenn Milstead (1945-1988) was the infamous North American Queen & Drag artist. Specifically, Divine was known for being a character actor, part of her act is well-known for its eccentricity. My personal exposure to Drag lite was Pantomine Grand Dames as a kid, and later when my friends made me watch RuPaul in art classes, so to me this is nothing new, the over the top, the glitter, the upstaging is all part and parcel.

#5 Dori-Style or 21st century Kimono Fashion --- The Dori-Kimono style. Something which I just made up because in going over notes for the first 20 years of 21st century section of Kimono history, I noticed a lack of a clear catchall term for what was happening in Japan at the time, at least in English descriptions of the time. I use the term Dori as I do not want to coin an unrelated term to the topic, but I also am reticent to claim all of Street style as 'Tori' either, whilst a large number of streets upon which the subculture originates in all use the suffix 'dori' (the bottom of Takeshita-dori for example), thence Dori-style.

#6  The Tea Gown --- This essay will cover the aspects of how 19th century Japanese import textiles to Western countries were used and repurposed, as well what their desirability tells us about how Japanese design was regarded and the image which these people held of Japan through the Western lense and consciousness. This follows the progression of how Kimono can be used in the West from the undress of the 1860s, adapting silk bolts in the 1870s to high fashion western daywear, to the 1880s aesthetic movement and 1890 wholesale adoption in the Victorian age to being used prominently by society hostesses as tea gowns by the Edwardian period, and the subsequent change in Japanese export culture which we see in extant textile collections of Japanese textile in Western dresses of the periods.

#7 Kimono and the Pre-Raphaelite Painters --- This essay will cover the aspects of Kimono in the Portraiture of the Pre-Raphaelites. The Pre-Raphaelites were a group of British artists and writers active during the late Victorian period. Unlike the Royal Academy artists, this circle of painters operated outside of the established comfortable boundaries of the expected white, cisgender middle class audience of the Victorian age. The movement is notable for its inclusion and encouragement of women, and in portraying and engaging non-conventional beauty and beauties as figures from the Classical World alongside Religious, Mythological and Folklore Heroines into Victorian 'Femme Fatales'.

#8 Jokyo/Genroku Kimono Textile Culture and the new role of the Komin ---  This essay will return back to GKTC (Genroku Kimono Textile Culture ; 1688-1704) and JoKTC (Jokyo K.T.C. 1684-1688) and the new role of the Komin (Artist caste) in GKTC. JoKTC is notable for being the lead up to GKTC, JoKTC being characterised by its transitory nature in comparison to GKTC, which was far more bold in its relations to what Kosode could and should be. Komin entered the picture at this juncture, and I shall elaborate a little more here than in other posts about why that was. GKTC is notable for its elaborate, perhaps gaudy and innovative Kosode design features, whilst JoKTC more so for the enabling factors of the time, as a sort of incubatory GKTC.

#9 Tagasode Byobu - This essay will explore the art motif known in Japanese art as Tagasode Byobu ( Whose sleeves Screen) This motif is a recurring art form which was particularly popular during the Azuchi-Momoyama era ( 1568-1600 ) as a representation of the ways in which Buddhist sensibilities met with the fast changing events of the end of the Sengoku Jidai (1467-1615) and as an extension of the habit of wealthy women from military families came to own and store a large number of Kimono. Prior to this, Kin Byobu ( Golden Screens) for the most part depicted nature like Sesshuu Touyou (1420-1506) after Chinese Cha'an painter Muxi ( c.1210-1269 ) or 'flower-and-bird' scenes like those of Kano Eitoku (1543-1590), rather than humans or human paraphernalia as an extension of the Zen painting school of thought about materialism.

#10 Cultural Acculturation --- The topic of our essay is on the nature of Cultural Exchange in KTC which will be an ongoing mini-series throughout 2022. This covers the 1000CE - 1500 period in Japanese History.

#11 Cultural Appropriation --- The topic of our essay is on the nature of Cultural Appropriation which will be an ongoing mini-series throughout 2022. 

#12 Cultural Acculturation --- The topic of our essay is on the nature of Cultural Acculturation which will be an ongoing mini-series throughout 2022. This covers the Asuka (Hakuho), Nara (Tempyo), and Heian periods (500CE-1000CE) in Japanese History.

#13 Asai Ryoi --- This essay will explore the legacy of Asai Ryoi on KTC. Who was Asai Ryoi you may ask? Only one of the most important writers for the Ukiyo genre. Asai Ryoi ( act. 1661-1691 ) was a prolific Ukiyo-zoshi ( Books of the floating world )  or Kana-zoshi  ( Heimin Japanese Books ) writer. His leading 1661 publication, lambasted and satirized Buddhism and Samurai culture of restraint in favour of the Chonin lifestyle of worldy excess.

#14 Edith Craig --- This is a post regarding the early adoption and promulgation of the Kimono and Japanese aesthetics in the life of the wonderful Edith Craig (1869-1947), daughter of the famous actress Ellen Terry (1847-1928) and Edward William Godwin (1833-1886). Edith was also known as 'Edy'.

#15 European Banyans --- This essay will explore the European garment known as a Banyan, which originated as a European reaction to Kimono in the 17th century, popular until the end of the 18th century. The word Banyan originates from Arabic ( Banyaan), Portuguese (Banian), Tamil ( Vaaniyan ) and Gujarati ( Vaaniyo ) loanwords meaning 'Merchant'. Alternative versions saw the item fitted with buttons and ribbons to attach the two front sides together. The Banyan was worn by all genders and was particularly regarded in its first iterations as a gentlemanly or intellectual garment worn with a cap to cover the lack of a periwig, and later adopted by women and greatly influenced how British womens garments were designed with preference for comfort in removal of panniers whilst maintaining luxurious, modest 18th century fashions (see Robe a la Anglaise).

#16 Miss Universe and Kimonope --- This essay will explore how Beauty Pageants, principally Miss Universe, has engaged with KTC. While there may be real Kimono worn by Japanese and Japanese adjacent contestants in the 'National Costume' category, I will be focusing on the Kimonope worn by contestants. The idea of Kimono as a 'national costume' sparks interesting conversations on what 'national costumes' are, their target audiences, and how we form ideas about these things to begin with.

#17 Onna-E --- Womens pictures refers to the Nara, Heian and early Kamakura ( 710-1333CE ) practice of drawing women in elongated Hand scrolls, which today are regarded as feminine gender coded Art. Some of these narratives depict the lives of women, their extra diaries, or the literature they wrote. The Onna-E style derives from how mostly Heian women represented themselves and others as a performed self in these scrolls, drawing from their lives indoors at their and the imperial abodes. Whilst a limited number of women could read Kanji, they also used their knowledge of Chinese culture to create and inspire their own culture; the first truly Wamono aesthetics; and it was with these preconditions that Onna-E became established in the Japanese art scene alongside Yamato-E and Oshi-E.

#18 A Jamaican, a Monster and Portuguese bar in the Orient --- This essay looks at the Kimonope attire adopted by North American Dancehall artists Shenseea (Chinsea Linda Lee | 1996 - present ) for the video to 'ShenYeng Anthem'. Whilst the aesthetic derives mostly from East Asian, principally Chinese aesthetics, the language used is specifically Japanese, referring to Chinsea Linda Lee as 'ShenYeng Boss', a perpetuation of the Dragon Lady stereotype. The essay mostly charts how this ridiculous Kimonope derides from the North American Anti-Chinese movement and how this intersects with contemporary Orientalism.

#19 The Red Kimonope --- The Red Kimono is a terribly named racist US silent film from 1925. The Longingist film includes a key scene which the production gets its name from where the protagonist drops her Kimonope, meant to symbolize that she had turned away from sin and prostitution, or in other words equating a wearer of the Kimono as a sex worker which stemmed from another American 'tradition'. This dreadful melodrama features the previously yellowface-accepter Priscilla Bonner as the lead protagonist. Throughout her trials and tribulations, she faces many ups and downs, like becoming a white version of the Lotus Blossom stereotype, because WASPs. I will explore the origins of the Lotus concept and the 'Jade' in more detail here as to provide the contextual background of the productions symbolism.

#20 Housewife, Business Girl, Office Lady --- I explore the concept of the arrival of the Business Girl, and the Shufu ( Censored | Housewife ) of the 1930-1970's period of the 20th century.[1] This intersects with how we see Wafuku represented, in a shifting dynamic that had not shifted so many barriers since the 1870s, and even until the 1990s with the intrusion of Euro/Americentric beauty standards being foisted upon the world during these centuries, in the wardrobes of the upwardly mobile single business women of from 1955-1965. These groups came into being in the 1950s with the advent of the eclipse of settler colonialism and patriarchal standards over women's lives internationally. KTC thus developed in response to these changing, testing and trying times (between 1930-1970).

#21 Herman's 'Kimono' --- In this essay I look at another Kimonope, specifically another Miss Universe 'national costume' entry. This particular Kimonope represents the legacy of Macarthism's neo-colonial/systemic racism, and subjugation of Japanese soft-power, a follow on of Orientalist late 19th/early 20th century assumptions and stereotypes of Asian culture and peoples which saw their subjugation in American foreign and domestic policy between 1885-1952. In this entry, we see a clear leaning into the 'Cool Japan' aesthetic by the Kimonope's designer, who is not shockingly not Japanese, but Israeli and therefore represents ideas about what Kimono are to this designer than the genuine article would to other participants of KTC, foreigner or otherwise towards 'Kimono'.

Social Links

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https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/KaguyasChest?ref=seller-platform-mcnav 

https://www.instagram.com/kaguyaschest/ 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5APstTPbC9IExwar3ViTZw 

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Sunday, September 3, 2023

王昭君 | Wang Zhaojun | 50 - 1 BCE | Bijin #21

Wang Zhaojun (active c50-1 BCE) was one of the four Meiren or great beauties of antiquity China. As a Meiren archetype, Zhaojun reflects beauties who are willing to give away a great deal, part of the transfer between antiquity ideals of acceptable beauty standards rooted in traditional ideals of inner and learned beauty (Dao/Tao beauty) towards contemporary Aesthetics standards of long black hair, cosmetics and alternating silhouettes popular by the Tang dynasty with court noblewomen and male poets. Zhaojun's tale begins at the court of Yuan of Han (48-33 BCE) and reflects the Han orientated male beauty standards of the time, which enabled female beauty to a point, but not allowing it to threaten existing male power structures whilst still serving Han male acceptability politics.

Wang Zhaojun with her Pipa (c.1600, PD) Kosumi Morihage

The tale of Wang Zhaojun

Zhaojun begins her tale as the child of a noble family living in Western China during the late Han Dynasty. Zhaojun was a great beauty, both inside and out being regarded as highly intelligent and aesthetically pleasing. As was customary, she was called upon by the Emperor to reside in his palace as a concubine representing her county in 36 BCE aged 14. At the court however, she spent her days in solitude, playing the Pipa & Gugin instruments, games of Go and practicing writing and painting. These marked her as an accomplished scholar as an adept practitioner of the Four Arts (四藝).

Zhaojun was confident enough in her looks that she did not bribe the court painter, resulting in her painting being subpar for her actual representative beauty. Due to this, she remained as a lady in-waiting at court. When a provincial Mongolian prince became ripe, Zhaojun was chosen as his tradable merchandise bride based on her supposed average, provincial beauty in 33 BCE. In this capacity Zhaojun volunteered, and in later being presented to court, the Emperor found out his error in allowing corrupt portrait painters to flourish, and eventually had to send Zhaojun to the Mongolian Kingdom.

Eventually Zhaojun produced 4 ankle-biters, 2 of whom were daughters; Yun Subu Juxi (须卜居次)  who became an important local political figure and Dangyu Juxi (当于居次). In 31 BCE with the death of the groom, Zhaojun requested a return to Western China, only for the Emperors progeny to determine Zhaojun must marry the succeeding prince of her new Kingdom, which in following her adopted homelands custom was to be her stepson. This produced 2 more daughters. These actions cemented Zhaojun as the pacifying, tolerant and wise Meiren of the Han dynasty whose selflessness enabled the pacification of the central Han courts.

Passive Otherworldly Beauty

A great many poems were written up until the early modern medieval period about Zhaojun. Most of them however present as a passive feminine token for male affection, being a mediator figure who gives over her agency and autonomy to fulfill the needs and requirements expected of her as a tradable commodity and womb factory. Zhaojun also often acts a meat shield used to protect Han ethnic groups from barbarian 'Hun' peoples Others even up until the early Medieval period in Europe, in China. This followed a patriarchal trope set by the central Han court as it sought to use women's bodies to draw its influence over neighbouring kingdoms and peoples through marriage pacts.[1] 

In the tradition of natural beauties prompted by the scholarly fascination with what it meant to be beautiful, Zhaojun was thus to be considered a Damei beauty figure, whose beauty therefore drew upon her intellectual beauties as earliers writers found in Xi Shi's tale:

Xi was said to be a true beauty, one of nature [...]. Zhuangzi and subsequent writers after him when contemplating Mei 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. This was a reflection of Zhuang's following of the Dao; [...] 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.[2]

Zhaojun represented this passive form of womanhood which was acceptable to men, as she embodied the Heavenly Nymph trope embodied in the work of Kaizhi. Zhaojun held a heavenly beauty which was both natural and yet otherworldly, a beauty which threatened other women's status due to the heightened place women depicted as Heavenly Nymphs held in the sexual marketplace, but which did not threaten male places as they were the perceived audience of these poems and thus the sole beneficiaries. Zhaojun was acceptably tame and selfless, serving her masters as a tradable commodity and protecting the Homogenous ethnic Han Chinese from the 'barbaric' Other by remaining an unattainable perfection which was yet still held to be solely Han originating, totally sidestepping the contributions Zhaojun played for the 'Hun' kingdoms she sometimes resided in.[1]

However there are variations in the agency given to Zhaojun dependent on the writer and the era, with the Tang era poets writing of her woeful journey to the land of the Huns as being so sorrowful that she began strumming her Pipa, which signified her own feelings of loss and homesickness.[3] However, most writers of Zhaojun wrote on her story during the early Ming period (1368-1644) which saw the tale change to focus on more xenophobic attitudes of its writers, turning Zhaojun into a passive intermediary away from the active and autonomous legend she acquired during the Tang.[1] 

By the way of the Lotus

Whilst not quite the exhilaration of Xi Shi, Zhaojun represented the archetypal expectations of beautiful women at the time, that their beauty must  reside purely in the realm of the intellect of noblewomen. By this time women were respected scholars, writers and moral exemplars but they played these roles through patriarchal lenses and worldviews. A far cry from the agency of the foregrounded Xi Shi, and the worldview which gave rise to the anti Wu Zetian crowd of Drunken Lotus Gongti Meiren ideals.[2] Even during Zhaojun's Tang renditions, she was depicted as a beautiful solitary figure with her Pipa by Han Gan (706-783 CE), which really only explored her beauty in the context of passivity and acceptance of her place and status in Han society.[3] Zhaojun was almost just this trope at the time of an almost 'fallen woman' type by marrying a non-ethnically Han person, and is more often remembered for her looks and the Emperor's reaction to them than what Zhaojun's motivations were to take on the role of marriage alliance volunteer.

Zhaojun therefore exemplified the bookend of the Heavenly Nymph trope exemplified in Kaizhi's time of women, in that whilst they could be valuable assets to the courts, kingdoms and people they served, their autonomy and agency was still held primarily in the hands of men and their roles where behind the bamboo curtain as it were. Their intellect came with the caveat of being practiced behind closed doors, ideally by wealthier castes and only for the benefit of upholding male dominated existing structures such as that of the Emperor's rule and the Han Chinese tributary system. Indeed until the upheaval of the 7th century of Matriarchal figureheads in China, these were the expected norms for women in this time, to be the properties of their fathers and husbands households and were expected to only act in accordance with their wishes as Confucian thinkers emphasised.[4]

Conclusion

In context therefore we see how the moral background of Zhaojun's tale shadows aesthetic beauty as a pre-existing side attraction of being a selfless person to self-serving men, which was then termed Damei beauty. Just as Xi proved herself, Zhaojun was to be admired for her otherworldly attitudes and decidedly metaphysical 'Han' standards to protect mostly Han-male interests and power structures. This moral tale reiterates the dao, self-sacrifice and the idea that aesthetic beauty was a pursuit to be held in vain, with real beauty coming from Zhaojun's acts of bravery in volunteering to move away from all she knew as a passive agent for male figurehead interests. 

Zhaojun was a moral tale for women of their place in Confucian society, a tool which whilst heeded in Japanese Heian society, was only pursued in the sense that complex emotions were considered to beautiful when subtly displayed.[4] Zhaojun in this way is the archetypal Heavenly Nymph Meiren, a conveniently passive pacifier and philosopher who happened to also be deeply beautiful and available, yet also elusive, pure and otherworldly construct of Han male beauty standards which would have been and still are held up to women as ideals, even thought their upholding solely benefits male interests and reiterates female subservience.

Bibliography

[1] Wang Zhaojun on the Border: Gender and Intercultural Conflicts in Premodern Chinese Drama, Daphne Pi-Wei Lei, 1996, Number 2, Volume 13, pp.229-237, Asian Theatre Journal

[2] See Bijin #17

[3] https://www.historyofroyalwomen.com/queen-wang-zhaojun/queen-wang-zhaojun-the-precious-jewel-that-the-emperor-deeply-regretted-losing/

[4] https://gradynewsource.uga.edu/being-a-woman-in-a-confucian-household/

Bijin Series Timeline

11th century BCE

- The Ruqun becomes a formal garment in China (1045 BCE); Ruqun Mei

8th century BCE

- Chinese clothing becomes highly hierarchical (770 BCE)

3rd century BCE

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

2cnd century BCE

        - The Han Dynasty

1st century BCE

Wang Zhaojun (active 38 - 31 BCE) Intermediary Bijin

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

                       - Buddhism is introduced to China (150 CE)

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

Diao Chan (192CE) [Coming Soon]

2cnd century

             - Yuefu folk ballads inspire desirable beauty standards of pining women [Coming Soon]

4th century

Gu Kaizhi (active 364-406); Metaphorical Beauty

        - Buddhism is introduced to Korea (c.372)

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

                       - Luo River Nymph Tale Scroll (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

Xu Ling; (active 537-583); Terrace Meiren

7th century

            - Tang Dynasty Art (618-908)

           - Rouged Bijin (600-699 CE) 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  | https://archive.org/details/viewsfromjadeter00weid/page/22/mode/1up?view=theater

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

            - Astana Cemetery (c.700-750) [Coming Soon]

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

                    - Gongti Revival https://www.jstor.org/stable/495525?seq=2#metadata_info_tab_contents

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

Fu Derong (active c.1675-1722) ; [Coming Soon] https://archive.org/details/viewsfromjadeter00weid/page/111/mode/1up?view=theater

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] | https://www.jstor.org/stable/25790976?seq=5

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]

Sakurai Seppo (active 1790-1824) [Coming Soon]

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]

Katsushika Oi (active 1824-1866) [Coming Soon]

Hirai Renzan (active 1838ー?) [Coming Soon]

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

Yamada Otokawa (active 1845) [Coming Soon] | 山田音羽子 https://www.jstor.org/stable/25790976?seq=10

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

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

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

Noguchi Shohin (active c1860-1917) [Coming Soon]

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

Uemura Shoen (active 1887-1949) [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]

Hisako Kajiwara (active 1918-1988) [Coming Soon] https://www.roningallery.com/artists/kajiwara-hisako | https://www.jstor.org/stable/25790976

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


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