Object Note
Part of an ensemble along with a sash or waistband (ZI2018.500744.1a ASIA).
Object History
This vibrant red (kimono) robe was purchased by Dr. Reem Tariq El Mutwalli in 2018 from Kerry Taylor Auctions, London, to enhance the collection of The Zay Initiative. It is part of an ensemble with a sash (ZI2018.500744.1a ASIA) that was made in Japan c. 1910 for the European market.
Object Features
This is a beautiful scarlet red silk kimono robe in (satin) weave embellished with floral and bird motifs in (satin_stitch) embroidery with silk floss threads in a variety of colours. This piece is a (houmongi_kimono) style calf-length kimono made for the European market and has a wide waistband.
With a scarlet red satin background, the field of this piece is embellished with satin stitched embroidery in double layers depicting an idyllic landscape with flora and fauna.
The landscape depicts a waterside scene with two cranes embroidered in shades of grey and ivory, willowy bamboo shrubs and irises emerging from the waterbody in shades of beige with blue, lavender, and pale pink, and low hanging wisteria vines and branches in shades of beige with lavender blooms. In Japanese culture, cranes symbolize honour, good fortune, and loyalty and are also believed to mate for a lifetime and live a thousand years, while wisteria symbolizes love and longevity, purple iris symbolizes wisdom and blue symbolizes hope and faith.
The double-layer embroidery renders a relief-like or raised surface almost like another kimono style robe – ZI2017.500485 ASIA – in the collection. However, both the layers of embroidery in this piece are done with silk floss thread, unlike the aforementioned piece which has cotton threads as its base layer. This reduces the thickness of the raised patterns. The piece is completely lined with a plain scarlet satin fabric and fastened around the waist with an embellished waistband.
While the origin of certain techniques and methods in textiles like satin_stitch embroidery can be traced to China, and its spread across the world could be attributed to the Silk Road, other similar techniques and styles are believed to have originated independently in different regions of the world almost simultaneously in human history possibly from necessity and convenience.
Though The Zay Initiative is concerned mainly with the dress and adornment heritage of the Arab world, it does include in its collection articles from areas outside the region. These tend to be collected to illustrate specific shared elements and influences attesting that the Arab world never existed in a vacuum. It constantly drew, and continues to draw, inspiration and influences from the cultures it comes in contact with be it through trade or geopolitical circumstances, especially those countries within the old silk route.
Therefore, one cannot but draw parallels between many techniques used in such garments, such as (couching) and thread knotting techniques (macrame), or flat metal adornment (talli), that are quite similar to those found in different parts of the Arab region.
The kimono, in particular, displays similarities that can be drawn with the pattern of Arab women’s overgarment or the (thawb), common to the Gulf region, constructed of three uncut panels of broad clothes forming the central body panel and the side sleeve panels very similar in shape to the kimono.
Links
- Morishima, Yuki, et al. Kimono Refashioned: Japan’s Impact on International Fashion. USA, Asian Art Museum, 2018.
- Kahlenberg, Mary Hunt. Asian Costumes and Textiles: From the Bosphorus to Fujiama. Italy, Skira, 2001.
- Liddell, Jill. The Story of the Kimono. USA, E P Dutton, 1989.
- Dalby, Liza Crihfield. Kimono: Fashioning Culture. Reaktion Books, 1993.
- Gluckman, Dale Carolyn and Sharon Sadako Takeda. When Art Became Fashion: Kosode in Edo-Period Japan. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1996.
- Kimono: Kyoto to Catwalk. 27 Aug. – 25 Oct. 2020, V&A South Kensington, London https://www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/kimono-kyoto-to-catwalk
- Gluckman, Dale Carolyn. “Liza Dalby. Kimono: Fashioning Culture.:Kimono: Fashioning Culture.” Museum Anthropology, vol. 19, no. 1, Mar. 1995, pp. 79–81. Crossref, https://doi.org/10.1525/mua.1995.19.1.79
- “Meisen Kimono From HALI 184 – HALI.” HALI, 24 July 2015, hali.com/news/meisen-kimono.
- Kimono Style: Edo Traditions to Modern Design: The John C. Weber Collection. USA, Met Publications, www.metmuseum.org/art/metpublications/Kimono_Style
- Kimono Refashioned. 8 Feb. – 5 May, 2019, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco https://exhibitions.asianart.org/exhibitions/kimono-refashioned/
- Takeda, Sharon Sadako. Monumenta Nipponica, vol. 49, no. 2, 1994, pp. 245–47. JSTOR,https://doi.org/10.2307/2385177. Accessed 10 May 2023.
- Guth, Christine. Journal of Japanese Studies, vol. 20, no. 2, 1994, pp. 518–22. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/133209. Accessed 10 May 2023.
- Richard, Naomi Noble. “Nō Motifs in the Decoration of a Mid-Edo Period Kosode.” Metropolitan Museum Journal, vol. 25, 1990, pp. 175–83. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1512899. Accessed 10 May 2023.
- Kramer, Elizabeth. “Review of ‘Kimono: A Modern History.’” Reviews in History, School of Advanced Study, 2015. Crossref, https://doi.org/10.14296/rih/2014/1787.
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