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Kimono
c. 1920
- Medium
- silk
- Classification
- kimono
- Dimensions
- height 123 cm x width 80 cm
- Museum
- Rijksmuseum
- Credit line
- Gift of Jan Dees & René van der Star
- Rights
- Public Domain Mark, as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
About this work
Kimonos: Mirrors of a Man’s Life. The kimonos on view here afford a glimpse into the lives of Japanese men from around the 1910s to the 1950s, from childhood to adulthood. This was a period of great change for Japan, marked by increasing industrialization and political conflicts culminating in the Second World War. Life modernized, technology advanced, and people took up new hobbies. Traditionally, men’s outer clothing tended to be reserved and a solid colour. Clothes could nevertheless also be a medium for highly unusual depictions which, however, were not visible to everyone. While motifs adorned the exterior of children’s garments, they were hidden from view in those worn by adult men. The decoration was found on the inside: on a long under garment, or the lining of a jacket (haori). This concealed imagery divulges the lives of the owners at the beginning of the 20th century. Childhood. A kimono marked events and stages in a man’s life. The kimonos on the top row (except the two everyday ones at either end) were worn by boys during the religious ceremony of miyamairi, namely an infant’s first visit to a Shinto shrine. This event followed a prescribed ritual and was an…
