Hiragana whilst a seemingly unlikely contender has been a motif used on kimono for centuries. Text on Kimono is used often to add poetical effect to an image, in imitation of the Heian period motif of Ashida-E. Most motifs which include this in 17th century Kimono are very large often draped across the shoulder expressively on what at the time was the new silhouette of furisode, whilst modern Kimono only use this motif in smaller fonts and styles a stylistic motif to marry images and texts.[1] For example, having a waka or haiku across the front of a masters craftsmen work are some I have seen used myself, but this is an exceedingly rare and unique motif in Kimono generally speaking. Different stylsitic writing styles are used to get across different aesthetics and meanings within the space they use, as will all graphic design processes.
Hinagata-Bon showing Hiragana on Kimono design (c.1667, PD) Japan
Historically, Ashida-E (reed writing) were a sort of insider message to those who knew the reference which the text and image correlated with during the Peace Epoch. Distinctive and 'gaudy' Kimono became the rage by the 1670s among the middle classes of Edo and Osaka due to the side effects of Tokugawa Sumptuary Legislation which saw a rise in coinage, leading to urbanisation and local industry, whose more profitable industry leaders desired exciting new ways to show their wealth due to the sumptuary legislation of their day increasingly curtailing their spending and extravagances. They got around this by buying their Distinctive gaudy Kosode made by local Machi-Eshi (Town artists) like Yuezen Hiinakatta who imitated Kakemono scrolls by writing on Kimono, a now vital trend of Genroku KTC.[2][3] This trend continued until the 18th century, but fell out of favour with new money as it was regarded as tacky, becoming instead a smaller variation by 1800 and falling out of use by 1900. Some modern kimono may use it as an advertising motif or for poetical connotation, but this is rare.
Bibliography
[1] See Bijin series #15
[2] See Essay series #8
[3] See The Bijin has Arrived in Bijin #15
Apologies that this is up a day before it should be, but honestly, I am frazzled with stress at the moment between juggling my current schedule and switching over to a new one which has been frustrating to say the least as most of the stuff that is affecting my life is out of my hands. On the plus side, it means I have more control over my schedule in the future and that I will be reopening the shop at some point in the near future, somewhere between applying for my first real career role, volunteering, part time work. full time studying, learning Japanese and slowly going absolutely insane over the absolute hair pulling out exercise that is trying to get people in cushy offices to actually answer their GODDAMN EMAILS. Either way, I am getting rather burned out and need a day off before I have to start making more phone calls, emails and frustrated page scrolling to do these peoples jobs for them and apparently also everything else that involves which is *testing* my soul. Either way, heres to the future! Sorry about the rant, I just like to be organized and this has been the month from hell for me. Toodaloo~!
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Seeing as it is Pride this month! I shall be focusing on the fantabulous 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.
In 1970, Divine worked as a hairdresser, later opening his "Divine Trash" in Massachusetts Opening, a vintage store which sold things Divine found in other secondhand or vintage shops, open air markets and car boot sales. Divine performed first in the counterculture era of Baltimore, Maryland and friend of the black comedy director John Waters, in the well known Pink Flamingoes (1972).
Pink Flamingoes (1972) John Water and Divine
By 1974 Divine, the filthiest being alive my love, was working onstage in ye olde San Fran. The one with the fault. By 1981 Divine regraced Waters films in Polyester (1981) and Hairspray (1988) which is today immortalised as the theater show which singlehandedly caused the 1980s ozone crisis seemingly. Divine also produced disco because they are the flithiest being walking the earth at this point. Divine eventually died as he lived, from eating filthily and living filthily. Literally his arteries went on strike by 1988.
Drag to me at least is excess having a ménage de trois with glamour and silicone. Drags Divine was known for its trashy nature and this plays into his character actor background and drag performances which fuel that notion in the camp aesthetic. One of the aspects where LGBTQIA+ culture crosses over with KTC is that of the Drag performer who interacts with Gay and Queer cultural markers and processes this through a camp lense. In 1980, Divine wore something described as a Kimono. This is interesting as whilst it does not fall under the category of a Kimonope, it certainly is not the shop standard pattern cut for a Japanese kimono either. I shall be ripping the 'Traditional dress' argument a new one here in other words.
Drag culture subverts and transgresses using camp as a tool to overcome rigid and stringent gender boundaries, beauty standards and ideas about fashion, culture and identity each to a differing extent dependent on a case by case basis. As evident by Mae West's Drag 1927, the Maltese Falcon 1931, Lindsay Kemp in the 1960s, Divine in 1980 and Rupauls Kimonogate in Season 8 Episode 5, KTC is clearly a continuing reference point or touchstone for Drag performance and aesthetics. Drag queens are experts (and some of them think they are) at referencing popular culture, so music videos, movies etc. They also operate within and around gender which is often strictly policed. I.E. they are more than aware than the average person of the gender and cultural meanings and semantics behind aesthetical choice.
American Kimono Textile Culture
The Red Kimono Poster (1925) | Seattle Restaurant (1963)
In Divines 1980 case, I would therefore take away that Divines Kimono is a reflection and subversion of the Kimonope, rather than a form of cultural appropriation. If anything, in reality it is mocking the people who think the Kimono is a 'national costume', 'native dress' or 'traditional garment'. To explain, 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.[4]
US President signing the Immigration Act of 1924 (1924)
When the 1950's arrived and Kimono exchange become more frequent due to the onion lifestyle, the KTC in the USA heavily featured the Kimonope and the Kimono. As Americans were more familiar with the Kimonope, this form of USKTC was proliferated through popular media and eventually popular culture, leading to the emergence of the Kimorobe as I henceforth shall name it. If the Kimonope is the construct ('geisha outfits' at the dollar tree) Kimorobe are the Bathroom and loungewear robes offshoots of the Kimonope. Kimorobes are not always as explicitly harmful to Asian-Americans and I will explore their relation to tea gowns next time, but labelling a garment as having a 'Kimono sleeve' none the less is a form of cultural appropriation, rather than cultural appreciation.
The Kimonope and Kimorobe, are all American garments inspired by Kimono and some are incredibly harmful stereotypes, typecasting and dangerous constructs of Asian-Americans. Drag on the whole suffers from these same pressures and is a rejection of having to conform to gender norms, aesthetics and standards. When Divine was wearing a 'Kimono', as with most other Drag artists, it is a reference to popular culture. In 1980, the Kimono was a relatively unknown garment which had become seen as part of 'old Japan' (a revival in 1980 due to the Japanese economy reversed this) and in this context, Divine is referencing the camp aspect of the vulgarity of the 1980 Kimonope.
Divine wears and references American KTC here, not JKTC, and is subverting the 'trashy' regard Kimono by this point held in American KTC which at this time regarded 'Kimono' as long sleeved bath robes or loungewear. Items which are easily discarded, not to be seen in public and tasteless or gaudy, rather like old stained sweat pants. In this sense, Divines Kimono is camp, filthy and Divine, a reflection of everything Statesians claimed they did not want but secretly lusted after anyway.
A supposed symbol of almightiness (1945)
As for the traditional garment argument (with its legacy of white supremacy) I have explored this earlier in Essay #3. The Kimono is a transnational garment construct, just like a top or trousers. To claim it belongs to one nation is an ethnocentric proponent of Orientalisation of Japanese textile culture and history pushed usually by western journalists looking to jump on the misguided 'woke' wagon. The argument that Drag Queens may not wear Kimono in drag performance for example is dimissive of Asian Drag Queens, and also destroys the credibility of the claim of cultural appropriation. For example, Ms.Hodgeon writes in 2018 how the Kimono holds 'religious' values.[2] This dismisses entirely the fact that most of the 'Kimono' mentioned are made from patterns made for everyday wear (yes shorter length hemlines and rips are acceptable as part of Japanese street style fashion, oddly enough) and that religious Wafuku uses entirely ceremonial Junihitoe dress, which is a whole other pattern of Kimono than the ones worn by drag artists, which Ms.Hodgeon describes as 'ethnic dress'. Are jeans with holes western 'ethnic dress' or simply the acceptable beauty standard imposed by a top down heavy fashion industry from a country which literally and still does refuse to treat Asian-Americans as human beings worthy of its attention, instead infantilising them and uplifiting its own acceptable beauty standards. Hmmm I do wonder.... .
This level of ignorance of the actual working relation of KTC and ethnocentric thought is part of white supremacy. It is quite literally a majority white beauty standard which has been pushed to Japanese audiences in the US and Japan and which has beaten 'traditional' dress into a corner as a 'dying industry' in need of a white saviour to rescue it from the clutches of obscurity and filth. A 'filth' which as part of American KTC, Divine clearly found aesthetical relation to and drew upon to perform a version of camp which continues into the present day.
In context therefore, we see that in the rejection of AKTC colonial beauty standards, Kimono can be used to exemplify new ideals of beauty or aesthetical standards. The Kimono Divine wears reflects a bougie, Camp take on the Kimono as loungewear in AKTC denoting by now old timey or 1910's 'high taste'. Indeed this is a continuation of relating to the subaltern native when oppressed and minority groups take to each other for solidarity, seen since the time of Oscar Wilde and his Hellenic 'Japan' to escape the standards and ideals of Victorian Britain in rejection and transgression.
Essay #5 will be on the novel overlap KTC loungewear or the tea-gown and the Kimorobe.
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