Weeds

 HRH has graced the peasants with her presence.

Now begone.

絹 | Kinu | Silk #1 | Fabrics #3

This given the extensive history and use of silk fabrics in Kimono, is a Miniseries of the collective Silks used by Japanese silk producers. This being the origin of silk introduction to Japan. 

Silk was first produced in Neolithic China (10,000-2000BC), and introduced to Japan by 300 AD. The trade had begun to be spread by China to Eurasia (such as India in 140AD)[4] between 100-199AD and thus knowledge of sericulture was spread to neighbouring regions.[1] This then began to began a formalized trade route known more famously as the Silk Road, begun in the Han dynasty (207 AD–220 AD).[2] China held a monopoly on much trade at this time, and like a squabbling toddler, often looked down on its vassal states. As such the 'dwarf kingdom'(Wa|倭|submissive, distant, dwarf) as China referred to Japan, did not spread the knowledge of sericulture in an effort which prevented sericulture proper being practiced for another 500 years when it was introduced by Koreans in dribs and drabs to Japan.

 Silk Road Route, (CC3.0) Kelvin Case

Silk Production occurs by the following:-

1. The female silkmoth lays 300 to 500 eggs.
2. The silkmoth eggs hatch to form larvae or caterpillars, known as silkworms.
3. The larvae feed on mulberry leaves.
4. Having grown and moulted several times, the silkworm extrudes a silk fibre and forms a net to hold itself.
5. It swings itself from side to side in a figure '8', distributing the saliva that will form silk.
6. The silk solidifies when it contacts the air.
7. The silkworm spins approximately one mile of filament and completely encloses itself in a cocoon in about two or three days. The amount of usable quality silk in each cocoon is small. As a result, about 2,500 silkworms are required to produce a pound of raw silk.^[9]
8. The intact cocoons are boiled, killing the silkworm pupa.
9. The silk is obtained by brushing the undamaged cocoon to find the outside end of the filament.
10. The silk filaments are then wound on a reel. One cocoon contains approximately 1,000 yards of silk filament. The silk at this stage is known as raw silk. One thread comprises up to 48 individual silk filaments.[4]

Goguryeo, Baekje, Gaya, & Silla (around 5th century)

According to the speculative tome the Nihongi (720 AD) in 300AD several Koreans went to China, and brought back 4 Chinese women who taught the Japanese how to perform plain and figured silk weaving. However until 800-899AD, the entire nature of sericulture was not fully revealed until a series of Korean, and Japanese envoys and diplomatic exchange eventually began in Japan.[1] These Korean-Japanese envoys often came from Silla, Baekje and Goguryeo, the 3 Ancient Korean Kingdoms and Gaya, which make up modern South Korea today and began trading in silk related items during the Kofun period (300-568AD). At the time, if China, Korea and Japan were 3 brothers, China would be seen as the oldest, Korea the middle child, and Japan the youngest.[7][8] 

In Wa as it was known then, the Korean envoys often changed their minds about what to share with Wa higgedly-piggedly,  due to the higgedly-piggedly power dynamics of exchange with China (Hanja:事大|serving the great [China])[7][8]. It was most likely these envoys came from the small Kingdom of Gaya, were some Japanese-Koreans and Korean-Japanese who lived and travelled between the two Kingdoms of Gaya and Wa most frequently at the time.[5] They would travel and trade mostly between Gaya and the Ruler of Tsushima, due to the proximity of Tsushima to Japan and Korea.[7] So during the Kofun period, the Koreans had very little incentive to give Japan silk technologies, instead offering silk products in other gifts to Wa.

Tsushima Island sits between Kyushu and Korea

Circa 400-499AD, it is thought that Silk Twill (a course silk) was brought to Japan by Asian Continental Twill weavers from the Hata Clan (秦氏), likely Korean who had earlier pioneered new silk weaving technologies for tapestries who often sent diplomatic envoys to Japan unlike China.[3] One of the earliest introductions of silk into these cross-cultural artifacts would have been King Haji's (KRN:하지; JPN:荷知) Gayageum (가야금), a Zither or silk stringed instrument sat in the lap like a Koto, which may have reached Japan around 479AD.[5][6] Chinese fashions worn by the Tang dynasty were often taken up at this time and at this point an early incarnation of Hakama (trousers) were taken up.[19] By the end of the Kofun period however, this all changed with the unification of the Korea peninsula, this lead to Gaya being overtaken by Baekje in importance to Japan by the 550's and the dissolution of Gaya in 562AD.[10] With the Yamato aristocracy of Kyushu beginning to form, creating stability, this lead to increased need for diplomatic relations with Korea.[9] By the beginning of the 7th century, given this lack of trade in woven and plain silks, this would presumably have lead to a greater demand for local silk production which began in Nara around this time.

Cap and Rank Menswear (8th century) | Nara/Tang Womenswear (690-705)

During the Asuka period (539-710AD),  relations between Wa with the Korean peninsula and other countries were officially begun after another spat over titles with China. In 603 with the adoption of the Cap and Rank System from China after a series of Yamato polity conflicts (War = No schmancy silk needed) the relations began anew in 607 and people and silk began to travel again.[10] From 600-699AD, 100 Koreans arrived in Japan with 20 delegations from the Peninsula compared to 12 from China. During this period, the Japanese capital changed to Asuka, Nara where valuable plain silk was woven by this time and was often gifted to Korean Kings. In 688, the King of Silla was given woven silk in offer for a previous gift.[11]  In 662, the Japanese enter the Baekje-Tang war straining Japan-Korean relations (KRN Hanja:交隣政策|Kyorin). The Asuka period was also unstable for Japan as well and by 645 the Taika Reforms took place, with succession disputes until the capital moved to Kashihara in 694 under the Fujiwara.[10] From this time on sporadic trade introduced more silk production items to Japan, but also jeopardized trade by Japanese involvement in Korean wars. A large number of fashions though still were influenced by China up to this point.

The Kingdom of Balhae at its height (830)

The Nara period (710-794) or the unification of the Japanese archipelago then began in Japan, with Nara both capital and trade hub for Japan. By 700-799AD with further infighting in Korea from the collapse of Goguryeo and takeover by Silla, the Balhae Kingdom (698-926) overtook the Baekje Kingdom a the most important trading partner, when around 40 delegations (KRN:발해사|Bokkaishi) were sent to trade with Japan from around 729-799.[13] 13 delegations were sent from Japan to the Balhae kingdom.[12] In 731, the Kingdom of Silla was invaded, perhaps as a result of Korean-Japanese emigrants who fled the warring states, bringing their trade and technology with them.[5][10] With this increase in trade and representation, came the self-assured nature of Japan. In 734, tributary items to the Chinese court included Pongee silk from Mino Prefecture.[11] In 752AD 300 Korean merchants exchanged Chinese silk brocade, tiger skins and fur pelts with the Yamato for Hemp cotton cloth and plain woven silk.[11][13] After another tumultous century of war in Japan, with the new Ritsuryo law code implemented, Fujiwara wars, 38 year Ainu or Emishi war and a new capital move the Nara period ended with the appointment of the first kind of Shogun in 794.[10] This began the new Golden Age, or the Heian Period.

ya who led the last successful Japan-China envoy in 838

Japan began to become less reliant on its neighbours becuase a unique Japanese culture and identity were beginning to form. By 800-899 though, some Chinese officials began to recognise Japan as a valuable state, through concerted efforts by Japanese and Korean diplomatic effort to recognise Japan as Reigi-no-kuni (霊亀の国|Equal state status). This paid off with some Chinese recognition of the Japanese. This paid in silk dividends when the provincial Chinese statesman Li Deyu gave a Japanese Envoy 10 pieces of silk to recognise the effort made in travelling in China and offerring pearls and woven silk, in turn for spreading Buddhism to Japan.[11] The 839 delegation returned in smaller numbers however, after a series of great storms had destroyed much of the voyages own ships resulting in the Japanese returning aboard Korean ships.[14] Jang Bogo, the Silla Wako (Silla pirate) and warlord also maintained a trading base in Kyushu, most likely trading in Chinese and Korean textiles.[5] In 858 the Fujiwara consolidated their hold over Japan.[10] By 894, the policy of sending ships to China was abolished over a spat caused by Sugawara no Michizane due to his own conflicting interests with the Fujiwara. Unlike the Heian women who could read and write in Chinese, Sugawara was completely ignorant of Chinese, and therefore useless as an ambassador and the Emperor had to order an end to the Chinese envoys.[15] 

From the Tale of Genji (note the metallic threads)

By this time the Heian court had begun to assemble and by 935 the Junihitoe began to be worn by Heian court women.[16][17] It is plausible they were made from silk with the sericin removed, which gives modern Kimono their shiny, smooth and incredibly soft texture, as course silks such as Tsumugi and Pongee are still seen as Traditional textiles today, but not luxurious enough for nobility. Whilst complex silk weaving was a Japanese textile technique and tie-dye was certainly used, decorative techniques were still being transported over from Korea and China. So instead of wearing decorative motif silks, Heian court ladies layered their Hitoe (single layer Kimono) into 12 and this process known as Kasane-no-irome (襲の色目|coloured layering) which adhered to the Chinese calendar of 72 seasons became fashionable as indoor wear for women, like teagowns in the Victorian age, or pajamas when you cant be arsed but want to pretend you aint a slob either.[18] By Murasaki Shikibu's time, these issues were overcome and new application techniques, embroidery and so on were used to decorate and strengthen fabrics, such as Sashiko stitches. Hakame were also first worn by women as an undivided base layer of their kimono, becoming a culotte divided type by the 10th century worn.[19]

TLDR

 - 300-399: Koreans via Chinese women introduce plain woven silk weaving to Japan

 - 400-499: The Hata Clan introduce Silk Twill Weave to Japan, and Gayan-Japanese Relations begin

 - 500-599: Gayan Relations Steadily Decline, decreasing silk exchange between Japan and Korea, increasing local Japanese plain silk production

 - 600-699: Formal Korean/Chinese-Japanese Relations begin and Silk is first traded officially by Koreans and Chinese merchants with Japanese silk makers in Nara

 - 700-799: Korean Collapse facilitates new Silk production capabilities in Japan by Korean-Japanese immigration increased Japanese silk exports and Heian Nara producing first cultural golden age for Japan

 - 800-899: Chinese recognition of Japan, Fujiwara Consolidation also driving demand for Complex silk weavers 

 - 900-999: Kasane aesthetic culture is born, and Junihitoe arrive creating the first silky ancestor of the Kimono

Bibliography

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

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silk_Road

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_influence_on_Japanese_culture#Silk_weaving

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

[5] https://www.worldhistory.org/article/982/ancient-korean--japanese-relations/

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

[7] The Exchange of Envoys between Korea and Japan During the Tokugawa Period, George McCune, 1946, pp.1-2, The Far Eastern Quarterly

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

[9] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamato_period#The_Yamato_state

[10] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Japanese_history

[11] Japan's Foreign Relations 600 to 1200 A.D.: A Translation from Zenrin Kokuhouki, Charlotte Verschuer, 1999, pp.3-32

[12] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balhae

[13] https://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/%EB%B0%9C%ED%95%B4%EC%82%AC

[14] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fujiwara_no_Tsunetsugu

[15] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugawara_no_Michizane

[16] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C5%ABnihitoe

[17] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kager%C5%8D_Nikki

[18] https://japan-forward.com/kimono-style-junihitoe-empress-masakos-sumptuous-enthronement-dress/ 

[19] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakama

Socials

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/KaguyasChest?ref=seller-platform-mcnav or https://www.instagram.com/kaguyaschest/ or https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5APstTPbC9IExwar3ViTZw, or https://www.pinterest.co.uk/LuckyMangaka/hrh-kit-of-the-suke/

源氏紋 | Genji-mon | Genji Crests | Patterns #3

The Genji-mon comprise of 54 variations of crests which reference to a specific chapter in the Tale of Genji novel, the first novel written in the world, by Murasaki Shikibu. My preferred translation is Waley's 1923-33 edition, given its pretty rooted in gay culture.[1] The Genji Tale was exceedingly popular in Japan from the 12th century on, (a western equivalent would be Chaucer) and was heavily referenced as a body of work in design.

The 54 mon are usually horizontal or vertically strips, and every mon has 5 of these strips in different alignments which make up the base of the mon, and with additional horizontal cross strip/s. Originally the crests were said to derive from incense burning ceremonies in Kudo (The art of incense|香道) in the Asuka period (538-710).[2]  

I'm indubitably Incensed into inclined iconoclastic-puns irregularly.

Kumiko (incense-comparing-game|組香) began with the tale of Ms.Ayama-no-mae and her love Yorimasa. Ayama was a court lady who passed one day by Yorimasa, another court noble. Yorimasa, enraptured by just a glimpse Ayama, went to her ladyship Toba-in, who had Ayama as her lady-in-waiting. Toba had Yorimasa draft a 5 line poem, each line a 'ko', the whole meaning found in the Kumiko or poetry game.[3] As part of the autumnal Kumiko a sitter burned 25 packs of incense each of which had its own symbol, producing 5 different smells in different combinations, and to achieve the end goal the contestants of the game had to guess what each smell was supposed to be, by writing 5 poems, or 25 ko (lines). This produces the link to calligraphic waka poetry which later down the line gave way from 25 ko to 54 ko and this became the Genji-kou (Genji-incense-game|源氏香).[4] 

Waka Calligraphy (c.10th century) Kokin Wakashu

Genji supposedly had a thing for incense himself, probably little-trees fresh pine scent I'd imagine. A lot of hubbub or Ko-Awase (incense-comparison|香あわせ)  was made of what Genji and other smelled of like apparently in the Heian era. I mean my mum  makes me smell her lavender perfumes, but I dont think she has yet to call to announce the proper etiquette to engage in the lifestyle of The way of the lavender .... . How bored must you be to be sat around going 'my armour has this much shinyness' or 'my shell has this many scenes from X poem'. Yeah how bored must you be to spend 6 hours a week finding out about how some historic squiggles are Mono-awase? The peasants should be aghast. Anywho-

Kumiko in the Tale of Genji (1617–91) Tosa Mitsuoki

In Genji-kou, scented tree resins were placed on mica paper, atop charcoal and burned in a koro (Incense-pot|香炉). Participants 'won' the game if they correctly guessed the most smells out of 4 packets (1 was removed in allusion to the covert glance Yorimasa gave to Ayama because Japan), and had their score written in a tally mark if they correctly guessed whether the burned incense matched a certain motif from a waka poem by Sugawara no Michizane (菅原 道真, 845-903).[4]

Backing away from Baffling Bemusements

The pots each had little vents, and on the vents was a grid pattern which allowed the smoke to escape. Because I would imagine that life before the internet was boring, i.e. people got bored a lot in late Heian Japan courts when Genji was written, they began doodling their tallies scores into the little mon which resembled the grates, which became the Genji-mon.[4] These at the time though were just doodles like that vertical S everyone drew in secondary school (Highschool|ハイスくれる) but nobody ever seemed to know were it came from. Or Kilroy/Foo was here. Or the by-the-by amusingly 2500 year old quip 'Νικασίτιμος οἶφε Τιμίονα' which means men have been shagging since Gautama.[7]

Genji-ko retained its popularity as did incense-burning when it became more popular in the Ashikaga era (1336-1550), with Shoguns Yoshimitsu and Yoshimasa going a bit cuckoo for incense.[6] The Genji-mon moved over into Ukiyo-e presumably from around the 1650s with the rise of the mass printed book in Japan as a sort of pseudo-historical Genji squiggle, or what Van Gogh's Japanese attempt looks like to anyone who can read hiragana today or Chippendales 'chinese' scenes, in Mitate-e (Analagy prints|見立絵) books. Genji-mon in this period don't correlate to a chapter, as until Waley came along, the Genji chapters were in no set order, and instead were just meant to allude to 'the ancient ones' to a contemporary Mitate-e audience.[1][5][8]

Ukiyo-e print with Genjimon on Screen (1823)

Either way these pseudo-motifs trickled over from Ukiyo-e into Kosode designs certainly by the 18th century and now today are recognised as denoting each of the particular 54 chapters, and events which happen in that chapter. These are often used in Kimono today to allude to various analogous stories or metaphors in the popular culture at the time they were made. Equally the motif can be used in conjunction with other motifs and dyes to connote a wider moral or ethic for example which Genji is said to evoke.

For a complete overiew of Genjimon linked to their chapters, see https://www.viewingjapaneseprints.net/texts/topics_faq/genjimon.html. I should also note that I prefer Waley for his easy reading, but Seidensticker is more historically accurate in his translation, with Waley omitting some chapters in a bid to remove the bumpf, which Seidensticker has left in his version.

Reference List

[1] See Orientating Arthur Waley, 2003 for more on that.

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C5%8Dd%C5%8D

[3] https://www.japanese-wiki-corpus.org/culture/Incense%20burning.html

[4] The Elements of Japanese Design, J Dower, 1971, pp. 152-53

[5] https://www.viewingjapaneseprints.net/texts/topics_faq/faq_genjimon.html

[6] https://home.kpn.nl/ooije006/sashimisen/things_japanese/incense_f.html

[7] https://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/jul/06/worlds-earliest-erotic-graffiti-astypalaia-classical-greece

[8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitate-e

Social links:

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ジョン・ルーサー・ロング | John Luther Long | 1898 | Essay #2 | Birth of the Kimonope

Kimono as transnational Culture Essay Series : The birth of the Kimonope.

I have literally no respect whatsoever for this kretyn so I shall just discuss the damage he has and is still doing to Kimono culture outside Japan. 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.

John Luther Long (January 1, 1861 – October 31, 1927) was an American lawyer and writer best known for his short story "Madame Butterfly", which was based on the recollections of his sister, Jennie Correll, who had been to Japan with her husband—a Methodist missionary.

ジョン・ルーサー・ロング（John Luther Long、1861年1月1日 - 1927年10月31日）は、アメリカ合衆国ペンシルベニア州フィラデルフィア生まれの弁護士、小説家。

ロングは、姉のサラ・ジェーン・コレルが日本に滞在した際に聞いた話を基に、プッチーニ作のオペラ『蝶々夫人』（Madama Butterfly。1904年初演）の原作である短編小説『マダム・バタフライ』（Madame Butterfly）を書いたことで知られる。同小説は1898年にユタ大学の学生雑誌『センチュリー・マガジン』1月号に発表された。 [1]

The infamous Kimono Wednesdays. I began collecting and learning (that is the distinction between appropriation and appreciation afterall is said and done) in 2015. I only became aware of Kimono Wednesdays when it was mentioned by Rachel and Jun online I think in 2017. It was one of those incredibly surreal experiences you really only experience very rarely, like the fact Madam Efunroye Tinubu existed. The argument essentially became in the end 'Woke' students, who rightfully very angry about Anti-Asian-American sentiment and the subsequent weathering [2] they had been subject to their entire lives against the MFA and NHK, who were equally confused because this was a Japanese-American or Asian-American collaboration, about sharing their culture with Americans. 

The plight of Japanese Americans who were wrongfully interned during WWII (1942)

Manets Japonisme Painting mocking Japonisme which sparked the infamous Kimono Wednesdays (1875)

The results were as you would expect, a lot of misinformation being thrown around and people arguing with Brick walls at the end of the day. As whilst for the protestors, this was a battle for their heritage and representation in a historically prejudiced country (I'm thinking Vincent Chin, Fred Korematsu, the 2021 Atlanta shootings, comes to mind) appropriating their culture. But ownership is a tricky debate, and whilst I have no qualms with their sentiments, Japan has equally done questionable at the least in these very same arenas before, which smacks of the lack of care in the American education system like some cyclic Cerberus rearing its head to attack any common ground or sense in the whole maelstrom of surrealism that Kimono Wednesdays stood for.

As for the other side, I an obviously arguing my corner here, but really how do you explain the situation to a Japanese audience? It only comes across as 'the Americans' and all nuance becomes lost in translation when you see how Japanese audiences reacted to Kimono Wednesdays. After-all, a national Japanese broadcaster had proposed this idea, so to a domestic Japanese viewer, American society had rejected an extension of their national culture, the Kimono. Supplement that with American internments and the continued violence against Asian-Americans (who are not a monolith as apparently some people need reminding of that) and we have the great messy Kimono-Wednesdays-split special.

Where Lolita fashion is worn globally (2019)

Common ground could have quite easily been met if the MFA had consulted people in the area, or even visitors on whether this was appropriate to them or not, and Japanese audiences could rightfully have been given a better grounding on the matter than just 'this protest happened? what are your thoughts about this?'. As usual, all of these ideas and things must be taken with a pinch of salt. Humans are rather strange like that, quick to celebrate, not so quick to learn from their mistakes, mostly their own. One of the reasons I write these essays, is to contextualize the Kimono (also not a monolith oddly enough, but a textile social construct and yes ALSO FASHION! Yegads!) internationally. If we are to accept the idea that Lolita for example is a Japanese fashion with Victorian and Rococo influences, we can quite easily see that Japanese fashion is transnational, and whilst there are people who believe culture is static and should not be allowed to be shared [3] between ethnic groups, a great many people find comfort in wearing Kimono and lolita as purely fashion, and in forming communities and identities and businesses (an important part of revitalising a 'dying' industry [4] I should think), and I shall argue in my next essay against the problems in falling into the surprisingly dangerous 'Kimono are only traditional garments' trap.

Punk Lolita, an example of both Pizza Effect and Cultural Diffusion

Instead though to refocus this rambling essay, I am taking a brief look into one part of the story of Kimono in North America and arguably popular global culture. The reason I quite despise John Luther Long is that he was the result of all that the protestors were worried about personified. I will gladly go on record and coin the neologism of 'Longingism' in his dirty, dirty honor. John Luther Long, or the defendant (he is guilty and yes I am the fashion police here) is guilty of the crime of clear (for once) mass cultural appropriation crimes on a grand scale. In the culture wars, it is arguably his work which western society has relied on in 'mainstream' culture to contextualize Kimono. Which is sort of like whenever Americans whip out the Downton Abbey dresses for me, and declare this is my whole culture, and the rest is useless. Or reductionism and erasure.

Author of Madam Chrysanthemum (1887) Pierre Loti; Princess from the Land of Porcelain (1865)

I am talking of course, of the inclusion of the Kimono as 'ethnic dress' in the defendants Madame Butterfly, as the original 'timid, subservient, filial piety' Asian woman stereotype found in Pierre Loti's 1887 Madame Chrysanthemum was in French[6], so of course we needed an English version! (Sarcasm, that is sarcasm, see Satire, I'm sure the Crawleys have seen a play or two; no I have not tortured myself by watching Downton Abbey either). Whilst the operas are arguably more influential in trickle-down-culture-proliferation, the operas had to have a source to begin with, and fairyland Japan is a racialists wet dream of course, so we then turn to the illustrated edition of a white cishetereonormative allosexual male North American writer on Eastern topics. Of which I can only imagine the 'Butterfly' to be an adapation of the equally white cishetereonormative allosexual male North American artist on Eastern topics (yes the whitewashed Princess from the land of Porcelain [5] has Orientalist overtones) Mr.Whistler who took on the form from Japanese Ukiyo-e as a signature motif in his own work.

the thing that shall not be named (1903)

Madame Butterfly; Purple eyes; A gentleman of Japan and a lady; Kito; Glory [7] was the original 1898 short story format which inspired Puccini's ever more famous Madam Butterfly opera. Butterfly was the kind of **** you should find in a Museum display case extolling the virtues of equality but alas no. The 'plot' goes along the usual lines, Pinkerton; the dashing American solider; who goes to Japan to marry a 15 year old girl. Finding the distraught 'Geisha' (not the kind I know) Cho-Cho-san (did he write it on the train on the way back home perhaps?), he saves poor Cho-Cho-san by marrying her. Then as any self-respecting normal person does, isolates her from everyone around her, forces his ideals of 'western fashion' down her throat, and becoming bored (did I mention this is the only real reason he marries her in the first place as in Pinkertons mind, Cho-Cho is below him; or the subservient Asian women) leaves her, promising to return albeit with no intention to, with no means to support herself and their new household (Cho-Cho also gives birth to his child) and goes back to the good ol' USA. Instead of the classic Loti ending though, Cho-cho who is the good ol' subserviant stereotype and subserviant Asian woman trope, does in fact wait for him in a stockholm syndrome fashion, denies marrying again and eventually leaves this world for the next one out the horror of finding he is not going to return.

Truly the overt racism and racialist attitudes can be found in the line; 'You thing mebby he keer yaet for me? No! He got come an' fight. An' I lig jus' see him-if he come, of course. Me? I don' keer liddle bit!' found on page 209. To read the full book copy reference 7 into any web browser.

America stereotypical/patriarchal sexualised images of women drivers (1952)

Maiko, trainee Geiko, serving tea, a world away from western assumptions (2011, Nils R. Barth)

Dust storm at Manzanar 'Relocation' Center, home to 120,000 uprooted Japanese-Americans (1942)

Sexualisation, Othering & Objectification are key dehumanising factors to the creation of the western 'Geisha' figure

The book is 224 pages long. The quote mentioned above constitutes around 89% of this book. 200 pages of subservient Asian woman stereotyping. It is from this which we derive the North American (Europe of course has Loti) stereotype of the 'Geisha'. The 'Geisha' being a sort of catchall term for what American men such as Arthur Golden have used to make false or misleading notions into narratives, as Mineko Iwasaki has said herself [8], has amounted to a perception of Geiko as 'highly cultured prostitutes'. Seeing as there is not the social and financial incentive for these men to denounce this, this leaves Japanese-Americans or Japanese nationals in the firing line for this despicable reductionist narrative which is what the 'woke protestors' felt they were up against at the MFA, and understandably so on a surface level.  It is through this narrative, that popular American culture, driven by these same financially successful men, have introduced Kimono into the 'mainstream' media culture, proudly conflating the 'Geisha' as Japanese, rather than American patriarchal power fantasy, and 'Kimono' as glorified bathing robe since 1924.[9][10] And also in challenging the mythological monolith and cultural hegemony; what it means to be 'authetically'; both of Asian-Americanness and Japaneseness.[11] 

It is telling therefore that the original source material for Longism is the illustrations of Madame Butterfly the novel. 2 illustrations of the kimono are found throughout the work and depict the kimono. I shall term them A and B, as A is more prominent, but B more accurate, and the argument I imagine the 'authenticity' or static culture crowd would use as evidence for their case in fashion court. I charge the defendant to be guilty, because in his work, exhibit A is a state of Kimono most prominent, most easy to find, and is not accurate to contemporary or everyday life in the the late 19th century to be period accurate, and which became the most proliferated image after the fact.

Exhibit B (1904) from p.159; A Geisha (c.1870)

B is found on page 159, and is commendable if we remove it from the books ugliness in depicting a woman wearing a Kimono, playing what looks like a shamisen which are typical Geiko social constructs.

Exhibit A (1904) Prologue Illustration

A on the other hand is the image obviously which in his Longismness, the defendant has chosen to show a construction of what an American thinks a Japanese woman dresses as. And what the defendant choose was a depiction of a human figure in a state of half or undress. Longinguistically (the act of defining Kimono in a sexualised manner adherent to the wests Geisha stereotype) the image includes a key number of motifs for Puccini to have picked up on. Glancing down posture, Mt.Fuji, Dolls or a small child and Ikebana in a vase. 

Nakamura Masanao

How are these things part and parcel of Longingism you may ask? Well cast your best guesses to the Paparazzos, because Japan is on the act too. Long obviously was aware of Japanese culture, but he undertook it as one giant blob he called 'Japan'. This was as Wilde has explained, not Japan but *J*a*p*a*n*, the image created in Longs mind of Japan. And Japan certainly would have helped in the pushing of the 'Good Wife, Wise Mother' doctrine with regards to how a 'true Japanese' woman should act, given it was considered a woman's patriotic duty to be demure and second to her husband.[12]  Long has obviously taken this in from his sister's experiences in Japan in some juncture and thus 'Japanese womanhood' as defined by the patriarchal system created by Nakamura Masanao shapes Japanese women as what the British tabloid press expect of Kate Middleton, of pure, childbearing machines who walk behind rather than beside their husbands. Add a sprinkle of whatever it is that caused likeminded buffoonery such as White Man's Burden (1899) [13] and we have the submissive, devoted shell of a being that is Cho-Cho-san. Depicted in A with her baby or doll (porcelain princesses and dolls are another favorite of Longs original intended audience), the kimono becomes associated as a garment worn by infantilised, submissive, child-heavy, no-backtalk with the odd 'exotic' cultural marker such as Samurai, Bushido, Mt.Fuji and Ikebana to the picture and we have established the Kimono as a cultural marker in line with the subservient 'Asian woman' trope. 

Its not Japan, its *J*a*p*a*n*

I mention Ikebana and Fusiyama (Fuji) as these at the time were well established Japanese cultural markers of Japaneseness to foreigners and Japanese nationals, and still are today. However we must remember the Othering impact which Longingness has in turning Japanese women in the 'Geisha'. Ikebana has a cultural significance to Japanese purity and vigilance to detail, understatement rather than vulgarity or sex as found in *J*a*p*a*n*. As part of the notion of being Iki (粋)[14] one is refined and demure, typically holding conservative rather than liberal values as Western audiences would define them. An 粋着物 therefore is often those grey, old lady kimonos, or their western equivalent being the 'cool-conservative-grandma'. The notion of Iki and Yamato Nadeshiko are heavily intertwined to conservative purity values of what 'Japaneseness' was and still is a heavy part of the visual makeup of ethnocentric Japan.[15] Other visuals and discriminatory policies are available and will be explored later on in another post.

Cho-cho a *J*a*p*a*n*e*s*e* woman (1902) depicted by Valerie Bergere

It is this Yamato Nadeshiko and Confucian purity and filial piety notion, which is a principle component of how Long presents Cho-Cho and *J*a*p*a*n*.[16][17] This is a reflection of the monolithic-ness of ethnocentric Japan, in the mirror of American ethnocentrism which creates in turn as Wikipedia notes, the buffoonery of a thought process which allows one group of people to think the Holocaust was a good thing and intern millions of people based on a perceived visual or 'racial' slight, casting them as the Other, or Othering them.[15] So in other words, when Japanese people typecast half their population as 'pure' and 'honourable', westerners like Longs sister, took home these notions with them to the USofA and feed them to the same people like Long, who created new images of *J*a*p*a*n*e*s*e* womanhood, and birthed the 'Geisha' trope in the United States. In this climate, culture became weaponised for national purposes, in America this used the Kimono as a cultural marker of the sexually available *J*a*p*a*n*e*s*e woman, or a Geisha.

In other words, the kimono, a thing to wear, was turned into Cho-cho-san, an object used to the ends of its new creators. The Kimono suddenly became an American garment, the *K*i*m*o*n*o*p*e*  (as I shall call it) which was acceptable to put onto the stage, into the hands of GI's in the 1950's and feeding the problematic 'dying industry' narrative we have around Kimono wearing today we find in films like Memoirs of a Geisha.[18] Kimonope certainly an American invention, should not be conflated with Kimono by Asian-Americans, and as a garment Kimono are also inherently, as with all objects, dynamic and use multiple sources of influence and inspiration. Particularly within the broad scope, fashion and history of Kimono as a garment, and narrowing who, why, how and when Kimono is considered appropriate to be worn by, when the answer from Japanese audience is generally anyone can be taken as cultural appropriation rather than appreciation in itself.[19]

Exhibit A though is a fine specimen of Longingism Kimonope your honor, and certainly deserves to be examined as such, whilst giving the due study and diligence Kimono deserves in transnational contexts. We do not I hope therefore need to have the debate as to whether the Top and Bottom are global garment constructs as is the Kimono, and that defendant in their creation of the Kimonope, and popularisation of the Geisha, that you will find the defendant guilt as charged. I the fashion police, rest my damn case. 

Concluding

In context therefore, we see that in the transnational context, Kimono has also become a cultural marker denoting similar and disparate value systems globally. The Kimono Bergere and other actresses (Cho-Cho) worn onstage in the Butterfly plays of 1900-1914 were used to denote that its wearer was a 'Japanese' woman, which many audience members may have filled in as being worn by the 'Geisha' without the correct background knowledge of the national, social and textile cultures which gave these attributed values such as purity in Japan and sexual attraction and submissiveness by Western audiences. John Luther Long contributed to the creation of visual Kimono culture by creating the Kimonope, or the sexy kimono, or tacky Halloween kimonos and it will haunt us forevermore.

The next essay will focus on the problems with the decline of the Kimono-wearing in Japan and how this 'dying industry' narrative damages and Orientalizes the Kimono as an institution.

Reference List

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

[2] https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/weathering-what-are-the-health-effects-of-stress-and-discrimination

[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZ4bNh0TnMI

[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTn7bosRxWE

[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Princess_from_the_Land_of_Porcelain

[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_Chrysanth%C3%A8me_(novel)

[7] https://archive.org/details/madamebutterflyp00longiala/page/n8/mode/1up

[8] https://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/19/books/arts-abroad-a-geisha-a-successful-novel-and-a-lawsuit.html?pagewanted=all

[9] https://eu.cincinnati.com/story/entertainment/arts/2014/07/20/beloved-butterfly-first-opera/12833371/

[10] https://www.metopera.org/discover/synopses/madama-butterfly/

[11] https://medium.com/@OPERAAmerica/the-butterfly-conundrum-46a78f58d8a1

[12] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Wife,_Wise_Mother

[13] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_White_Man%27s_Burden

[14] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iki_(aesthetics)

[15] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnocentrism

[16] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamato_nadeshiko

[17] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filial_piety

[18] http://www.costumersguide.com/cr_geisha.shtml

[19] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lv96Rq6A7k8

Social links:

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地機 | Jibata | Hand loom | Fabrics #2

Unfortunately a quick one today as I have a rather busy schedule this coming week. The Izaribata/Jibata loom (地機) is a traditional loom used up until the Meiji period (1868-1912). The loom weaves Yuki Tsumugi silk (結城紬) which are made in Yuki, Ibaraki, and is a labour intensive process, as with the creation of Bashofu in Okinawa. Yuki Tsumugi Kimono are generally speaking the darker/rougher fabrics you find in second hand shops and are very sturdy fabrics more suitable for damp weather in my experience. Working with this type of loom is highly personal, and allows for more the handcraft to shine through as the fabrics produced are more obviously created by hand in their finishes, which often use stencil designs, which are a dead give away because of their odd-end/fraying effects around the edge of the design against the base weave. 

It is used for tight weave fabrics which are made of fibers such as hemp or nettle. It also does a wonderful form of ragweaving as well which is useful as a winter fabric. The Tsumugi weave is a tight one, with the warp beaten with the reed (the comb structure) and weaving shuttle, in part this tightness comes from the tension placed on the warp by the weavers back! The loom itself when using support items such as a backstrap can limit therefore what pattern the fabric takes at times.[1] Today the loom is still used by some and retains it place in Japanese handicrafts.[2]

Reference List

[1] http://japanesetextileworkshops.blogspot.com/2010/08/backstrap-looms.html

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y%C5%ABki-tsumugi

Social links:

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麻の葉 | Asanoha | Hemp Leaves | Patterns #2

Asanoha is said to resemble the shape of the leaf of the hemp plant leaf in its geometric patterning and has been used to decorate Buddhist statues since the late Heian period (about 1100). 麻 being Hemp and 葉 leaf. The triangle on it own was said to work as a protective charm, and the grouped triangles in Asanoha therefore is said to keep away yokai. The pattern can represent healthy growth, vigor, resilience and prosperity, with the 6 triangles forming the pattern seen as particularly auspicious.[5] Asanoha is used today in Ranma (panels), textiles and graphic design.[1] Asanoha was popularised as a pattern by Kabuki actors from 1605 onwards, which made it a popular pattern to watch Kabuki shows in the Edo period such as Iwai Hanshirou V (1776-1847) and used both as a full and background motif.[4][6] 

Kanbara (Utagawa Kunisada)

Asanoha was used as a pattern since the Sengoku period as the hemp plant was commonly worn by lower classes as it was a cheap and durable plant to grow. It therefore made up the bulk of commonfolks kimono for the time until cotton was introduced in the early Edo period; it was the poor womans silk. Hemp is known as well as a common medicinal plant for alleviating pain, it is also known as a sturdy material which grows upright, as well as a durable plant, and can be used to make rope for instance. Because of its durability, hemp was associated with being healthy or living a long life and was often used on children's kimono in the hope they would grow up sturdy and strong. Today hemp and Asanoha are used for yukata.[2][3]

Reference List

[1] https://www.tanihata.co.jp/english/monyou/asanoha.htm 

[2] http://project-japan.jp/asanoha/#:~:text=It's%20a%20pattern%20that%20has,wish%20for%20children's%20healthy%20growth.

[3] https://www.nippon.com/en/japan-data/h00478/traditional-japanese-patterns.html

[4] https://www.lavenderhome.co.uk/pages/the-meaning-history-of-traditional-japanese-patterns

[5] https://polinacouture.com/en/the-meaning-of-patterns-on-japanese-fabrics/

[6] https://www.dokidokikimono.com/kimono/kimono-patterns-asanoha-%E9%BA%BB%E3%81%AE%E8%91%89/

Social links:

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ルネ-ヴィヴィアン | Renee Vivien | 1907 | Kimono as transnational Culture Essay#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.

To say Vivien lead a tumultuous life may be an understatement. Born to an American Heiress and a Scots father John Tarn, and the family lived in Paris for a short time until her father died in 1886. Vivien's mother desperately held onto John's family inheritance and gave Vivien hell as a child, frequently putting her under lock and key for perceived misbehaviour and trying to have her declared insane as to inherit the family fortune when it was bequeathed to her upon return to London in 1886.

Pauline became Renee in 1899 when she moved to Paris to escape her abusive mother, and in Paris she dedicated herself to poetry, writing exclusively in French, and running around Paris with wealthy lesbians dressed as Hamlet. She frequently pushed phallocentric narratives and kept to her own agenda in the patriarchal system she found herself living in. Whilst in Paris though she often attracted 'unwanted attentions' from male admirers and so would a body double stand in for her at her poetry performances. In Paris, her ground floor flat on 23, Avenue Foch (then Bois de Boulogne) opened onto a Japanese Garden, and was decorated with antiques from London and 'Eastern art' manufactures of shrines, statues and Buddhas which she smattered around the flat amidst fresh floral bouquets of lilies and offerings of Lady Apples with an ever coming and going stable of wealthy lesbian lovers.

Her first relationship was with Violet Shillito, then Natalie Barney in 1899 with Shilotto dying in 1900, and Barney splitting up as a result of Vivien's grief in 1901, with her first book published in the same year. She became involved in a relationship in 1902 with Baroness Helen van Zuylen, a branch of the Rothschilds family in France. Vivien, known for her aesthetical flair, was reliant on Zuylen who was married with children. Vivien considered herself married to Zuylen, but upon recieving a letter from the Turkish admirer, Kerime Turkhan Pasha, who was also married and so their relationship only developed through their letters. In 1907 however, Vivien was dumped by Zuylen and Vivien travelled to Japan in a rather dramatic relationship rebound to escape the gossip in the Lesbian circles of Paris. Kerime also stopped writing in 1908, turning to drugs, alcohol and sadomasochism of all things. Ever the eccentric, she continued living her lavish bohemian lesbian lifestyle until something we may recognise today as EDNOS caused her death in 1909.

Vivien was an aesthete, and this is evident from how she presented herself in society and how she lived her life. Her translations of Sappho from the Greek at Oxyrynchus, her globetrotting and her multinational heritage clearly played a role in how she came to own and understand other cultural artifacts and concepts, such as the Kimono, which I shall explore somewhat here with regards to viewing the Kimono through the Aesthetes lense.

The Aesthetical Movement, (approximately 1870-1900) in relation to Japanese design was the English answer to French design, developed into the Modern Style which later became Art Nouveau on the Continent. It's better known 'aesthetes' or purveyors of beauty included at the time figures such as Oscar Wilde and Mary Eliza Haweis (author of the Art of Beauty). Figures such as Wilde and Edward Carpenter championed the closeted lifestyle of Gay men, Wilde through his connections in the art world, under the guise of the 'Hellenic' or 'Japanese' worlds (see the Decay of Lying 1891) which touted historical literature as a sort of escapist revisionist Gay Arcadia, and Japan played this role from 1870 - 1933 for figures in the Bloomsbury scene such as Virginia Woolf (see Vogue review of Tale of Genji 1925). 

Decadence, the aesthetical era which Vivien was born into, prized Vapanese (Japanese as the Victorians saw it) art as purely aesthetical, and extension of the art for arts sake mantra popularised in France at the turn of the 19th century.

"'No, not Sappho' said Renée Vivien, who had come in with her light step , wearing an empress' s kimono and carrying a sheaf of roses in her arms , which she offered me by way of greeting. 

-The Muse of Violets (1904;1977)

In this passage, the Kimono is celebrated as a mark of wealth, compared to Sappho (high poetry) and Roses (expensive natural beauty denoting a Englishwoman perhaps) and Empresses, which to the decadent aesthete was a raucous display of finery and nothing more, for beautiful objects were said to have enough merit to exist on their own and as such were viewed as art objects (see Whistler's 1878 trial for more on the matter of substance.)

In context therefore, we see that in the transnational context, Kimono can be used to exemplify new ideals of beauty or aesthetical standards. The Kimono Vivien wears or said to be wearing was a popular staple among bohemians of the era and was used to denote that its wearer was part of the fashionable upper class, less so by the Edwardian era, but still if original a highly coveted item of great beauty and 'refined taste'. The Hellenic and Japanese worlds in a gay Vapanese notion, were regarded as in-code for the wealthy gay lifestyle in this time and place, and which later diverged as fodder into the new form of 'camp' with the inclusion of items such as fans used by performers today positively as cultural appreciation (think Mae West's Drag 1927; the Maltese Falcon 1931, Lindsay Kemp from 1959-2018 etc, also see Roger Bakers Drag, 1995).[1][2][3][4][5]

Next week I shall return to patterns, but the next essay will discuss cultural appropriation in an American context.

Bibliography

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9e_Vivien

[2] http://www.suzannestrohcreative.com/the-cruellest-month-for-renee-vivien/

[3] The Muse of the Violets : Poems, Renee Vivian, 1977, p.9

[4] Orientating Arthur Waley, 2003

[5] Drag: A History of Female Impersonation in the Performing Arts, Roger Baker, 1995, p79

See Also

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aestheticism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_Style_(British_Art_Nouveau_style)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Decay_of_Lying

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-radiant-prince-comes-to-fifth-avenue

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_for_art%27s_sake

http://www.branchcollective.org/?ps_articles=nicholas-frankel-on-the-whistler-ruskin-trial-1878

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapphic_stanza#:~:text=The%20Sapphic%20stanza%2C%20named%20after,a%20rhyme%20scheme%20of%20ABAB.

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芭蕉布 | Bashofu | Banana Cloth | Fabrics #1

Bashofu is a fabric made locally in Kyushu from wild Bananas which grow there due to the tropical climate of the islands, and is ideal for the heat as the fabric does not stick to the body when a wild sweatdrop appears. 

Imperial Ming Dynasty China Court Ladies

Historically the Ito-basho tree and fabric-weaving skills were introduced to Kyushu from Southern China, and were sent back to Ming dynasty China in bolts as gifts, having being traded with the Satsuma since at least the 17th century and for far longer as tribute to Ryukyuan kings from the 15th century. Historically, Bashofu was created all over Ryukyu and during the 19th century the Takahata loom was introduced which increased production rates, but which dropped after 1945 with the passing of many of the Ryukuyan weavers. Today the textile is woven in the Kijoka (喜如嘉) are of Ojimi Village (大宜味村; Ufujimi in the Ryukyuan language) in the Kunigami district of Okinawa Prefecture. In 1974 the tradition was recognised and is today deemed an Important Tangible Cultural Property, and its first living national treasure Tairo Toshiko (平良 敏子) in 2000 who turns 100 this year! (Congratulations Ms!) In local Ryukyuan folklore, it is said that Bashofu . Ryukuyans also hold that the cloth is a protective charm over it's wearer body and soul, and this is shown by the life expectancy of its residents who often live to over 100.[1][2]

The Bashofu Tree

Bashofu yarn is made using the bast fibres which jut from the trunk of the tree, of the musa balbisinia (Ito-basho) plant. The further out the fibre extract is from the trunk, the courser the result when made into Bashofu it becomes. Initially the cloth is made by dividing these course fabrics into layers and grades of courseness, boiled to soften and scutched to remove the excess tree sap created and left to dry. When the fibres dry, these splits are divided again for their thickness and knotted end-to-end to be spun and woven, requiring 40 trees worth of fibres to make a bolt of cloth.[3][4] The colouring of Bashofu is created primarily from the condition of its original fibres, so factors such as heat and how many grades the bast fibres came from the trunk determine the level of yellow to browning which the main colour of the cloth produces. Patterns are often applied to the fabric later on in brown or indigo application of stripes or checks and hatching patterns in graduating browns.[2][3]

The bigger problems faced today by Bashofu weavers is in the carrying on of the u-umi (hand woven) tradition of Bashofu weaving. Ms. Taira as head of the Preservation Society is working to combat this.[4]

Reference List

[1] https://www.selvedge.org/blogs/selvedge/bashofu

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%8Cgimi

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kij%C5%8Dka-bash%C5%8Dfu

[4] https://www.oki-islandguide.com/specialfeatures/pride-of-okinawa-basho-fu

Further Links

Bashofu production: http://www.bashofu.jp/

Social links:

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